Falling Rain
by freakinwinky
Summary: In the midst of deepresion something, or some one comes to Grimmuald place to change what was meant to be. (warning:book 5 spoiler) SiriusxOC COMPLETE!
1. Cloth in the Snow

Falling Rain  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, save for about three whom you'll meet later. ( I don't want to give anything away)  
  
Warning: This story takes place during the Christmas holiday of the fifth book. A lot of things will be very similar to book 5 and WILL give several main plot points away. Therefor I would caution you not to read this story unless you have completed your reading of The Order of the Pheonix  
  
Chapter one: The cloth in the snow  
  
It was nearing New Years Eave at Grimmuald place. Not that this was something to be celebrated. In fact, as Harry Potter leaned against the window of the bedroom he shared with his best friend Ron, he was certain that in his five years in the wizarding world, he could never remember a gloomier "after Christmas". Even with the lively decorations still in place through out the mansion and the prospect of Mr. Weasly soon returning from St. Mungo's, Harry could not etch his thoughtsaway from the sullen mood of his Godfather, Sirius.  
  
Knowing Sirius would soon loose all the company he had kept during the holidays made Harry wish he could stay in the dusty mansion and not have to return to school .  
  
Then again, the thought of returning to Hogwarts would not be pleasant even if Sirius had not been in his sultry mood. Harry knew that Umbridge would still be as hideous as ever, if not more so. He had no quidditch to look forward to, even the D.A had begun to lose it's edge. All in all, he thought that, no matter what, the end of the week would come much too quickly.  
  
With these pitiful thoughts, Harry continued to stare out the window at the unchanging white ground. It was then that the ground at the front of the house was not completely white. Harry rubbed his eyes twice to make sure that this was not some trick of the light or his imagination. Perhaps his mind, so eager to find a distraction from his depressing thoughts had simply imagined a red peice of cloth reaching out through the snow. It was not until the peice ofcloth slowly began to blow away to reveal a full head of long black hair and two hands did herealize he was not imagining. There was a woman lying on the door step of # 12 Grimmuald place.  
  
Harry ran over to Ron's bed. Ron had been snoring contentedly for the last hour  
  
"Ron! Ron! Wake up!" He said fervently. Ron, after several moments worth of shaking from Harry, reluctently opened his droopy eyes.  
  
"Harry? Whatisit?" He said drowsily, rubbing his eyes more times than was entirely necessary.  
  
"Ron come over here to the window and tell me what you see." Harry had a fleeting fear that the hands, hair, and cap could, like the theserals, be something only certain people could see.  
  
"Why?" inquired Ron. However, he did as he was told and slowly walked across the room to look out the window.  
  
"Do you see anything?" Harry asked hopefully. He wasn't exactly keen to have the burden of seeing yet another thing that no one else could.  
  
"Just a load of snow." Ron replied. Harry's heart sank  
  
"Wait!" Said Ron suddenly. He no longer sounded sleepy. Indeed, his voice sounded almost as eager as Harry's had when he woke Ron from his bed.  
  
"I do see something. There's a redish looking cloth out on the step. And there's what looks like a lot of hair, and I think I see a pair of hands... blimey Harry! I reckon someone's out there!"  
  
Ron continued to stare at the window in amazement. Harry however knew what he had to do. If someone really was on the door step of # 12, they would need help, and quick by the looks of it.  
  
"Well, I guess we'll have to tell them won't we?" He answered reffering to the group of adults who were meeting down stairs.  
  
"Now?" Ron asked incredulously  
  
"Harry there in a meeting, Mum'll kill me if–"  
  
"Listen, if someone's really out there she'd want to help them wouldn't she?" "Well yeah but-"  
  
Before Ron could protest, Harry was out the door. He could hear Ron hurriedly following him down the spiral stair case as he neared the door to the kitchen where the meeting was taking place. He heard voices coming from inside the kitchen but he did not open the door. Instead he waited for Ron to meet him in the hall way. Somehow, he did not want to have to face the order alone.  
  
As soon as Ron appeared at the foot of the stairs Harry swung open the kitchen door. The voices he had heard in deep discusion stopped suddenly upon the entrance of the two boys.  
  
"What are you two doing up at this hour?" Mrs.Weasly asked sharply.  
  
"I've told you a thousand times you're too young to sit in on meetings. Now go back up to-"  
  
Harry and Ron cut her off and immediately flung into a series of explanations.  
  
"There's someone outside! we saw them from the window-"  
  
"They'll probably need help-"  
  
"They looked in an awful state-"  
  
"We'd better get out there quick!"  
  
"Settle down both of you!" Lupin yelled above their hurried speech  
  
"Now, What exactly happened?"  
  
"I was looking upstairs looking out the window." Harry began. "And I saw something red or maroon lying on the front step. Anyway it blew away-"  
  
"And then there was a lot of black hair and a pair of hands kind of out stretched." Ron continued  
  
"I woke Ron up to see if I wasn't just imagining it..."  
  
"I saw it. And we reckon that there's someone out there!"  
  
"That's impossible!" Said Sirius in a would be calm voice.  
  
"No one would be able to find this place even if they wanted to! Unless they were a member of the order."  
  
"Oh, you don't think someone's been hurt do you?" Asked Mrs. Weasley frantically.  
  
"You boys are sure of what you saw are you? You know that what ever out there's a who, not a what?" Growled Mad –eye Moody suspiciously. His normal eye fixed on Harry while his magic eye swerved to survey Ron.  
  
"I think so. At least it looked human." Said Harry somewhat weakly.  
  
Moody looked unconvinced Harry kept on.  
  
"We reckon that whoever it is or whatever it is must be unconscious or something 'cause they were barely moving. So, we need to get out there!" The members all looked slightly hesitant. They didn't believe him. Harry knew he should have expected as much.  
  
However, after a few moments silence Lupin and moody both volunteered to follow Harry and Ron out to the front porch. As they opened the front door, Harry knew that the entire house hold would soon wake to the renewed shreiks coming from the protrait of Sirius's mother. Feeling slightly guilty at having to wake every one, but still reselute, Harry and Ron led the way to the step on which they saw the red cap.  
  
Sure enough, they didn't have to dig far to find a small, dark red cap, with a healthy brim lying in a snow bank next to the step. This find however, was nothing to what lay next to it. The black hair that Harry and Ron had seen from the upstairs window lay on top of a rather large, indelebly human, head witch belonged to some one who looked as if they had simply tripped and fell head first into the snow.  
Moody silently picked up the cap and began examining it, as Lupin kneeled by the step and gently turned over the frozen body.  
  
Harry could see more clearly now. The face was that of a girl...no a woman, who looked just slightly older than Tonks. She was draped in a slightly worn cape, and the state of her close seemed to rival those of Lupin's robes. Her eyelids were slightly open, while the rest of her thin body lay still and lifeless. Lupin, lifted her wrist to check for a pulse.  
  
"She's still alive." He announced to the small group.  
  
"She's frozen stiff, we'll have to get her inside."  
  
"Are you sure that's the best idea Lupin?" Moody asked.  
  
"After all what if she's a member of the ministry gone astray? Or perhaps a death eater who's mission went slightly a miss? Or worse, what if she's a muggle? You can never be too careful with so much at stake can you?"  
  
"We can't just leave her here. If she's a muggle we'll be more than able to perform a memory charm on her when she's been properly nursed to health. If she's a ministry official or ... well, it's a risk we'll have to take."  
  
Although Moody did not seem satisfied with Lupin's explanation, he made no complaints as Lupin began to lift the girl to move her into the mansion. But as he did, he was shocked to see that she had already begun to move. Everyone stood still for a moment as the girl's eyes began to open gradually. Once her eyes had become a custumed to the light, the woman began to look around questioningly. Harry was surprised to find that after a minuet her dark blue eyes had landed upon him.  
  
"Harry?" She whispered so that it was barely audible.  
  
No one moved for quite a while. Now everyone's gaze had lifted from the woman in the snow to him.  
  
"You know my name?" He asked her.  
  
The woman gave a slight nod and then whispered again.  
  
"Harry Potter." 


	2. Ebony

Chapter two: Ebony  
  
Several long moments passed. No one said a word. Ron, Lupin, and Moody were now looking hurriedly back and forth between Harry and the Woman in the snow, as if waiting for some sort of explanation.  
  
Harry knew that the reason they were bewildered was not the mere fact that she knew his name. Most witches and wizards had heard Harry's name or seen photographs of him in the prophet and in several books. It was the way she said it that made every one so astonished. She spoke as if she had not only heard of him, but also actually knew him.  
  
"Well", said Lupin finally. "If she knows about Harry, then it's safe to assume that she's not a muggle."  
  
The woman turned her gaze to Lupin. It was clear that she had no idea what he was talking about. "What is your name?" Moody growled, as gently as he could, however she still looked slightly startled.  
  
"I-I don't remember."  
  
The woman said in barely more than a whisper.  
  
"Memory modification do you think?" Harry heard Lupin ask aside to Moody  
  
"I would say it seems so, but can't be sure just yet." Moody replied. Lupin turned back to face the woman.  
  
" We'd better get you inside. Can you walk?" Lupin asked  
  
"I'm not sure" she replied. She spoke a bit louder this time.  
  
"Better not risk it then" Moody said.  
  
"Remus, you can carry her inside."  
  
Lupin obeyed and scooped the woman up fairly easily. Her eyes still held a bewildered gaze and Harry could now see that she was shivering violently. As they followed Moody and Lupin into the house, Ron pulled Harry aside and asked,  
  
"Harry, do you know her?"  
  
"No." Harry answered "At least I don't think so."  
  
"Well, she seemed to know you didn't she?"  
  
"I guess," Harry said still in a slight shock.  
  
They entered the front door to find a fairly large crowd awaiting them. Not only was nearly the entire order gathered near Mrs. Black's portrait, (which Sirius had since managed to subdue), but Harry's other best friend Hermione, and Ron's youngest Sister Ginny were also starring down at them bewildered from the bars of the stair railing. Harry barely had time to wonder weather Ron's twin brother's Fred and Gorge were a wake, when there were two loud "Cracks" and Fred and George appeared in the hall way. "What've we missed?" asked Fred with the air of some one who had simply dosed off and missed an important piece of information that they were meant to hear. "Nothing that concerns you." Replied Mrs. Weasly sharply. "Now go back to sleep, all of you." She added suddenly spying Hermione and Ginny. The two girls reluctantly headed back to their room. But Fred and George did not move from their stance."  
  
"Oh, we see how it is." Said George sarcastically  
  
"Now that Ron's a prefect, he gets to sit in on all the important stuff while the illigitement son's are sent to their room." Fred said.  
  
Ron's ears went slightly pink as he looked down at the floor.  
  
"They're not even of age!" Gorge added angrily, gesturing toward Harry and Ron.  
  
"Let them stay Molly. Besides there is safety in numbers." Said Moody throwing as suspicious glance in the direction of the woman.  
  
Mrs. Weasly pursed her lips, but said nothing as the entire assembly moved it's way into the living room.  
  
"And, who is she?" Tonks inquired. There was a slightly bitter tone to her voice that Harry was willing to bet would not have been there if the girl had been carried in anyone else's arms.  
  
"We don't know yet." Lupin answered.  
  
He proceded to explain what had happened outside as he laid the girl down on a slightly moth eaten couch.  
  
"Lucky you mate!" George said to Harry once Lupin had finished  
  
"Yeah," Fred continued  
  
"wish a strange girl would turn up at the burrow who knew my name.Only joking mum!"  
  
He added hastily to his mother who had shot him a very stern glance. The woman was now starring around the room, obviously aware that they were talking about her, but for some reason she seemed unable, or unwilling to respond.  
  
"Oh poor, dear. She's positively soaked!" said Mrs. Weasly.  
  
As she said this, she removed the girls wet cloak and replaced it with her own shawl. The girl nodded to her in a sort of silent thank you. Mrs. Weasly gave her a smile.  
  
"Some tea should warm you up." And with that she headed back into the kitchen.  
  
"Now that she's here, what do you propose we do?" Lupin asked, to the general crowd who were standing in the living room.  
  
"Well, obviously she can't stay here." Said Tonks. "There's no room for one thing. And we don't know anything about her. She could be anyone really."  
  
" Where else could she possibly go?" Kinglsley asked.  
  
"If we take her to St. Mungo's they'll start asking questions about where she comes from, what her history is. I don't think they'll buy the story that we just found someone on the street. Besides I'm beginning to run out of good cover stories to tell the ministry."  
  
"Yes but if we let her stay she'll be able to hear everything the order's been up to." Said Tonks defensively.  
  
"How do we know she's not a spy? We don't even know her name!"  
  
"Ebony." Said a clear low voice that made most everyone jump.  
  
The woman on the couch had spoken for the first time since she'd been pulled out of the snow. All eyes turned suddenly to her as the argument stopped.  
  
"What did you say?" Asked Sirius, as he moved hesitantly closer to the couch.  
  
"I-I think I remember some one calling me Ebony."  
  
"Do you remember who?" asked Kinglsley. She didn't respond.  
  
"Was it a friend or parent?" Ebony shook her head "Maybe a boyfriend, husband?"  
  
Sirius continued. Ebony replied verbaly this time.  
  
"No it was no one like that." She suddenly put her hand on her head as if she was thinking very hard.  
  
" It was someone I hardly knew I think..."  
  
Harry gave a little cough before he got up the courage to ask what he had been wondering since she had said his name.  
  
"How do you know-", but Mrs. Weasly cut him off.  
  
" I think that's all we'll need to know for tonight." She said handing Ebony the mug in her hands. Ebony took it gratefully.  
  
"She'll stay the night." Mrs. Weasly said definitely.  
  
"We'll talk more about it in the morning." Every one silently agreed as Mrs. Weasly began to shuffle Ron and Harry off to bed.  
  
"That's it ?" Fred and Geroge protested together.  
  
"Yes, that's it. Now go back up to bed you two."  
  
But Harry was not tired. Ebony's sudden appearance had given him even more to think about. How had she known his name? And, what's more why had Mrs. Weasly stopped him from asking? Ron passed him on the stairs. Harry had stopped on the fith step, lost in thought.  
  
"Coming Harry?" Ron yawned looking down at him.  
  
"In a minute." Harry answered  
  
"Well, 'night"Ron said as he trudged back up stairs.  
  
Harry heard the door open and close several more times as order members began to leave. Soon, as he heard Mrs.Weasly bid Sirius good night, it appeared that nearly every one had left the living room. Harry reluctantly trudged up the stairs to bed. As he opened the door and jumped onto his bed he had one good thought. If Ebony did end up staying at Grimmuald Place, at least Sirius wouldn't be completely alone. 


	3. The Witness

Disclaimer: I own no one except "Ebony" (if you don't know who I'm talking about read the first two chapters). P.s please don't ban me for not putting a disclaimer at the beginning of the second chapter. I just forgot!  
  
Chapter 3:The Witness  
  
He was walking down the corridor again ... the door lay open this time, waiting for him. He began to walk faster.faster.faster. Soon he was in an all out run. Nothing was going to stop him from entering that door this time. No sooner had he thought this than a large flow of black hair fell from behind the wall blinding him. Someone or something was trying to keep him from seeing what was behind that door. He instinctively fumbled for his wand. He pulled it out and muttered several words under his breath. There was a flash of green light. He heard a strange, yet familiar, cold, high pitched laugh coming from his own mouth as a woman screamed in the distance.  
  
Harry woke with a start to find that the woman's scream's had not been imagined. Even as he lay in his bed he could hear hysterical shrieking coming from the direction of the living room. From the sound of it, Ebony had been having nightmares too. Immediately Harry jumped to his feet. As Harry looked over to the bed next to his, he could see Ron removing his bed covers muttering "What now?"  
  
Both boys headed out the door and down the long rolling staircase. Harry walked faster with each step, his mind buzzing with questions. The curiosity of the woman sleeping directly beneath him was becoming unbearable. Who was she really? Had she just had the same dream as him? And most important of all, How did she seem to know him? He began to run out of patients with the turning stairway as well as with Ron, who was slowly, sleepily, trudging down one step at a time. The situation was not helped when they met up with the girls about seven stairs from the bottom. It was one thing to have two people in a narrow hallway, but four was a real challenge. But, eventually after quite a bit of position changing and several squashed toes, they all managed to make their way into the living room where they found most of the household already awake.  
  
Ebony was sitting up on the couch, looking quite a bit calmer than she had when she had been pulled out from the snow. Mrs. Weasly was handing her another cup of tea. Fred and George were standing near the stairwell that Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny had all emerged from. Sirius and Lupin were both standing near the portrait of Mrs. Black holding the curtains shut to avoid more shrieks echoing through the house  
  
"It's a bit ridiculous for all of you to stay up, I'm fine, really." Ebony said. Her voice was not soft or shaking now. It was low and fairly brassy.  
  
"What happened?" Harry asked, rather boldly stepping out from the stair well.  
  
"Nothing. She had a nightmare, that's all." Mrs. Weasly said . But Harry wasn't moving. Not until he'd gotten some answers.  
  
"Right, nothing." Ebony insisted, perhaps sensing the resolve in Harry. "It's nice of you and everything but you should all go back to bed."  
  
For Sirius, who was already wearing dark circles under his eyes, this seemed to be all the excuse he needed. He began to move towards his bedroom in the bottom corridor when Mrs.Weasly stopped him with one of her glances, which she usually reserved especially for her son's.  
  
"Tell us what happened dear." She said as she moved her gaze to Ebony. "Well, like I said there's not much to tell." Ebony sounded as exasperated as Sirius looked. But she still continued. Harry waited with batted breath.  
  
"I was walking in this corridor and I saw a kind of blackish grey door. I tried to turn and walk away from it, but then this hand.or something pushed me right in front of it. Someone was already there, in front of the door. They pointed this, stick thing at me and said something I don't remember. Then there was this explosion and I heard this high-pitched cold laugh. The next thing I knew, I was screaming my head off on the couch."  
  
Harry gave a slight inaudible gasp. She had had the same dream as him. Why? He was about to ask when Mrs. Weasly said. "Well, then. Finish your tea and we'll all be off to bed." She got up from the couch and looked as if she were going to her bedroom, but as she passed she gave Sirius and Remus meaningful glances that told Harry there was to be another meeting in the kitchen.  
  
The twins looked betrayed. Still, they apparated back to their room with out saying a word. And after a few minuets, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all began the long haul back up the stair case.  
  
"Who is she?" Ginny asked. "Well, we don't really know." Answered Harry. Harry and Ron related the entire story to the girls. When they had finished, the girls both looked slightly bewildered.  
  
"So they think she had her memory modified?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Well, yeah. That's what Lupin and Moody said."  
  
"Hmm." Said Hermione indefinatly  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron inquired "Well a memory modification is supposed to affect short term memory to isn't it? And, she remembered the dream that she had nearly perfectly. So, the way I see it she either had her memory modified and the charm has begun to wear off, or it was never modified to begin with."  
  
The other three stared slight amazement at how Hermione could remember every aspect of her charms homework even at three o'clock in the morning. They kept walking up the stairs in silence. No one seemed in the mood to talk any more. At least not until morning. The girls reached their room and bid Ron and Harry good night. When the boys entered their room, Ron fell into his bed and was busy snoring within minuets. Harry however, worked against his desire to doze off. He still had questions he needed answered, and he was not exactly keen to go back down that corridor again. Especially not when he might have murdered someone, even if it was in a dream. Still his body was so tired that it eventually won the struggle and Harry was soon lost in a deep sleep. 


	4. Clothes and Frying pans

Chapter 4: Clothes and Frying pans  
  
The last week of Harry's stay at #12 was, even with the introduction of a mysterious new comer, not especially eventful.

Ebony's sudden appearance seemed to change the mood of the house over night. Soon, order members were appearing at the front door positively 24/7. There was never a moment when the door bell was not ringing or loud cracks were not sounding from the living room. Harry and the others were now allowed downstairs only for meals and mere caught fleeting glimpses of order members. That was not to say that Fred and George's expendable ears were not working over time. They were usually unsuccessful, but Harry found that it was worth the failed attempts to catch just a few words of what the order members were talking about  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins were not alone in their plight to uncover the order's dealings. Ebony had been banished the to a small attic room on the day it was decided that she would remain at Grimmuald place. The most she had been told was that after the holidays were over, she would begin lessons to try and break the memory charm. Even though she was more than old enough to join the meetings, (most of which had to do with her), The Order thought that since she had little memory of the magical world, it was best that she stay up stairs. Especially regarding what happened the second night of her stay.  
  
At dinner, Harry and Ron had both been surprised when Hermione announced, with a self-satisfied smile, that she had just recruited a new S.P.E.W member.  
  
"What insane person who lives in the same house as Kreatcher would want to join Spew?" Ron asked incredulously.  
  
Hermione gave him a sharp glare and opened her mouth to answer when the door to Kreatcher's den burst open. The entire table looked around to find Sirius dragging stubborn looking Ebony by the arm.  
  
"I tried to tell you! This wouldn't be happening if you had just listened to me!" Sirius was yelling as they entered the room.

Harry moved his chair to get a better look at what was going on. He could see that, in her right hand, Ebony was holding a rather moldy looking old sock. Suddenly Harry understood.  
  
"This wouldn't be happening, If you hadn't kept him enslaved in the first place! AND LET GO OF MY ARM!" Ebony began struggling to free herself from Sirius's grasp.  
  
"Only if you give me the sock, and promise never to try and free Kreetcher again."  
  
"And why should I give into your oppressive standards? Give me one good reason." Ebony was now keeping the sock out of reach from Sirius who was grasping for it.  
  
" Because we have to live in the same house and I'll make your life a living hell if you don't!" Shouted Sirius who had to change his grasp on Ebony's arm in order to make a dive for the sock.  
  
"Oh I see! So I should conform to save myself is that it? No matter what you say I won't give up as long as anything is being held against it's will. Don't you see? He doesn't like being locked up here!" As she said this Sirius made a quick grab for the sock.  
  
Ebony spun him to the other side of the table trying to keep it out of his reach, but Sirius was too quick for her. He twisted her hand and she let out a yelp of pain finally releasing her firm hold on the sock. Sirius grabbed it and let go of Ebony's arm.  
  
She stared at him darkly for a few moments and then turned to address the rest of the room.  
  
"If you'll excuse me, I'm very tired. I'll head up to bed." She was very calm as she said this. In fact, if some one had walked into the room they would have thought that she had just finished a very lovely dinner conversation.  
  
"Hermione, you don't mind if I borrow one of your night dresses do you?"  
  
"Oh, no of course not." Hermione said her mouth slightly open.  
  
"Well then, good night" And with a last sharp look at Sirius Ebony walked out of the room.  
  
"Did you tell her how to free house elves?" Sirius asked darkly, rounding on Hermione.  
  
"If you must know, yes I did. And while I don't approve of her behaviour, she did.  
  
"Have a point yes I know." Sirius snarled as he sat down in between Harry and Lupin.  
  
From then on, all agreed it was best that Ebony remained up stairs. And while Ebony was as frustrated as Harry was about not hearing any news, even she confided that she preferred staying upstairs. There, she was closer to her clothing supply, (she had been borrowing old cloths from Hermione's trunk.) Also, she quite enjoyed her new job as test dummy for Fred and George's creations. Indeed she seemed fascinated at the amount of things one could do with magic. Fred and George were also happy as they only had to pay her two sickles every time she tried one of their skiving snack boxes, where as with the first years at Hogwarts, they had to pay one gallaon for every taste test.  
  
Ebony never spent her earnings. Instead she insisted that the twins drill holes in the tops of each coin so that she could string them on a chain that was constantly dangling from her neck. True, the twins saw this as nothing short of blasphemous, but as it was the price for their tests, they obliged (however grudgingly).  
  
It also seemed that Ebony preferred the company of the children to the adults. In fact despite her large word usage and partiality to books, Ebony was almost like a teenager herself. She took part in Fred and George's jokes and could often be found giggling with Ginny over some secret they had shared. And every one agreed it would have been absolute torture to have Ebony and Sirius work together. They were barely tolerant of each other at meal times. The rest of the house hold was becoming used to the arguments that often broke out between them over dinner.  
  
"Harry, please tell the slave driver on your right to pass the butter"  
  
As was typical of most dinners Sirius and Ebony sat one seat apart from the other putting Harry between them. As they were still keener to speak at each other rather than to each other, this arrangement forced Harry to act as communicator for both parties.  
  
Harry turned to Sirius who handed him the butter before he had a chance to ask.  
  
"And you can tell the woman to your left that if she is to remain in this house she will keep her opinions to herself." Sirius said, his lip curled  
  
Harry passed Ebony the butter with out saying a word. She took it wearing a deadly glare that seemed to match Sirius's perfectly.  
  
"You may tell your Godfather that I have the freedom to say what I please. Unless of course he intends to treat me as another one of his slaves..."  
  
Harry turned instinctively back to Sirius whose face flushed.  
  
"Harry, please inform the smart mouthed know it all next to you that all she has to do is live one month with that Kreatcher in this house to realize who belongs to whom."  
  
"You wouldn't have to deal with that if you would just set him free."  
  
Predictably, they had finally abandoned the third party pretense and were soon to be engaged in an all out shouting match that had rather morbidly come to represent a sort of after dinner entertainment.  
  
"I would if I could just to shut you up." Sirius had risen from the table now and every eye seemed riveted to him as if watching a mildly interesting television programme.  
  
"... but... oh forget it, you wouldn't understand."  
  
"Oh wouldn't I?" Ebony countered. Sirius stared sullenly at her but said nothing as he began to sit back down. Ebony gave a self satisfied smile.  
  
"You like it don't you?" Ebony said triumphantly.  
  
"That's it isn't it? You like being able to lord over something smaller than you. You, you... Conformist!"  
  
She added the last portion as if she had just given the worst insult a human being could possibly throw at another. With another semi-satisfied smile she stalked away from the table and up the stairs for the fourth time that week.  
  
Soon after that Sirius excused himself from the table and headed to his bedroom muttering "women" under his breath.  
  
Harry attempted to ignore the out burst and continued to eat his mashed potatoes, but was surprised to hear Ginny and Hermione erupt into a chorus of giggles from across the table. He looked at Ron who seemed to be as baffled as he was.  
  
"What's so funny?" Harry asked. At this Ginny only laughed harder   
  
"Well it's obvious isn't it?" Hermione said.  
  
Harry was feeling very stupid as he couldn't see what was supposed to be obvious. He was glad to see he was not the only one surprised. Ron gave him a sort of shrug and Fred and George had looked up from their plates wearing equally perplexed expressions.  
  
"They fancy each other!"  
  
"Wh-what?" Chocked Ron. The men at the table still seemed shocked, but Mrs. Weasly now bore an amused sort of smile.  
  
"If shouting your lungs out at some one means you fancy them, then perhaps Umbridge and Snape should take a house by the sea together!" Fred said sarcastically. Every one but Hermione laughed  
  
"Well, shouting at each other is sort of a way of coping with it. Sirius hasn't really had to deal with Women for about fifteen years. And Ebony doesn't even know who she is let alone how to deal with men." She added the last bit somewhat bitterly with an exceptionaly pointed look at Ron.  
  
This was enough for Harry to have to listen to. He was with Sirius, no matter how old he got, he would never be able to understand women.  
  
The evening took a turn for the worse when latter he was summoned down stairs to learn that upon his arrival at hogwarts, he was to begin taking extra lessons with Snape.  
  
"Wait a minuet." Sirius said as Snape was turning to leave. "If I hear your using these occlumency lessons to give Harry a hard time You'll have me to answer to."  
  
"How touching." Snape sneered. "But surely you've noticed that Potter is very like his Father."  
  
"Yes I have," said Sirius proudly.  
  
"Well then you know he's so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him."  
  
Sirius pushed his chair roughly aside and strode around the table pulling out his wand as he went; Snape whipped out his own. It was at this very moment that, (to Harry's great releif) the kitchen door opened and Ebony walked in. Both Sirius and Snape stopped in mid action and turned to look at her.  
  
"Molly sent me in to wash the dishes." She said rather quickly while her eyes darted from Sirius to Snape to Harry. Harry doubted weather this story was true, as Mrs. Weasly had never asked Ebony into the kitchen after dinner before.  
  
Still, neither Sirius nor Snape looked likely to try anything now that she was in the room. Indeed they were both starring at her wearing very odd expressions  
  
Snape finally lowered his wand and said  
  
"I suppose this is the mysterious girl I've heard so much about?"  
  
Sirus nodded bitterly as he also put his wand down at his side.  
  
"Professor Snape. This is Ebony." Harry said as a way of an introduction. Snape nodded curtly in her direction but kept his stance  
  
"Well then I hear congratulations are in order Black." Snape said, a familiar sneer returning to his face  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Sirius through clenched teeth.  
  
"Well seeing as you've recently been promoted from repair man to sitter..."  
  
"That's it! I warned you sinivelus!"  
  
He raised his wand, but before he could do anything Snape was doubling over in pain. Ebony was standing over him holding the frying pan she'd been washing.  
  
"Let that be a warning." She said to Snape who now lay groaning on the floor.  
  
"And in the future you will kindly remember that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."  
  
Harry and Sirius were both starring at Ebony awe struck. Finally Sirius spoke.  
  
"You didn't have to do that you know. Why didn't you just let me handle him?" He was trying to sound angry, but Harry detected a definite note of amusement in his voice. Ebony must've heard it to because she let out a slight laugh.  
  
"And have you go back to that horrible sounding prison they've told me about? No thank you." She began to walk back to the sink, shoving a struggling Snape back to the floor as she went. Sirius smiled rather strangely after her.  
  
Needless to say, the next day Sirius and Ebony were being perfectly friendly to one another. Indeed, Sirius seemed the happiest he'd been since Christmas. Still, even with Ebony staying at Grimmuald place, Harry had a slightly un-easy feeling about leaving Sirius. Ebony was not, after all the best influence to keep Sirius out of trouble. Still, his God Father was happy. Wasn't that what Harry was supposed to care about?


	5. The Fugatives

Disclaimer: Ebony is the only character that I own  
  
Authors note: The next four chapters will be from Sirius's perspective.  
  
Chapter five: Fugitives  
  
Sirius was beginning to feel restless again. It had only been one day since the children had left for Hogwarts. Already he had begun to miss the noise that had filled the house during the holidays. Tonks had taken Ebony to Diagon Alley to buy clothes sufficient for her stay. When she returned, he knew they would have to begin lessons to work against her memory modification. He was not particularly looking forward to this. Of course Ebony had turned out to be very interesting company, but he was certain she would not be the ideal student. She could be very stubborn and had a habit of loosing her concentration. Books could only hold her attention for so long before she started pacing up and down her bedroom and about the house much to Sirius's annoyance.  
  
Still, Ebony also had a habit of doing something especially redeeming just when Sirius thought he could stand her no more. ( A good example of this was the night she hit Snape in the stomach with a frying pan.) This quality was part of what made her interesting. The more he thought of it as he sat in the bedroom starring out the window, the more he began to see these lessons in a positive light. At least by attempting to break through Ebony's memory charm, he was doing something useful for the order.  
  
No sooner had he thought this than he heard the door open and his mother's portrait begin her usual chorus of screams. He hadn't expected them back for another two hours at least. Although he couldn't imagine what could cause such an early return he ran into the living room to silence his mother's portrait before meeting the girls at the front door.  
  
When he arrived, he found Tonks looking frazzled and carrying much fewer bags than he had expected. Ebony on the other hand looked extremely cheerful.  
  
" It's official, I am now a fugitive!" She said happily as she walked over to the coutch and threw herself down  
  
"What?" Sirius asked incredulously. He was looked to Tonks for some kind of explanation.  
  
" It's true!" Tonks said heaving, she was apparently some what out of breath.  
  
"She is now wanted for the assault of a ministry official and resisting arrest."  
  
"What happened?" Sirius was now looking to Ebony and he could feel his old rage at her beginning to return  
  
"Well don't look at me!" she said defensively as Tonks moved to set her load down near the couch.  
  
"I don't really know what happened either. I suddenly noticed this red haired boy who was walking next to the shope across the street. I asked Tonks who he was, she said the name Percy Weasly. Well the second she said that, I had a sudden urge to go over and punch him so I did." She said all this very calmly. It was as though punching complete strangers in a packed street was as common as having afternoon tea.  
  
"Well soon enough Percy was taking a pretty hard beating from Ebony, " Tonks continued. "But he eventually got enough wind in him to pullout his wand and try to jinx her, I jumped in with a counter jinx and that's when someone signaled for the magical law enforcement. We ran for it as soon as we saw them coming."  
  
There was a few moments silence as Sirius took it all in. He was now struggling between anger at Ebony for nearly betraying the order and jeopardizing Tonks's position in the ministry and amusement at the idea of her beating a man he thoroughly despised.  
  
"Do you think any one recognized you?" Sirius asked Tonks finally  
  
"Nope. I've still got a few disguises that the ministry hasn't seen."  
  
As she said this Tonks moved her face into a pained expression and replaced the wavy blonde hair and round nose she had sported for the day with her usual purple spikes and heart shaped face.  
  
"Of course you know that now neither of you will be allowed to leave the house?" Tonks said to both Ebony and Sirius  
  
Sirius nodded dismally, but Ebony made no reply. He could hear her in the back round rummaging through her bags of clothes. The anger Sirius had felt towards Ebony was slowly turning to curiosity. How did she know Percy? And even more importantly, what had he done to her in the past that made her want to attack him?  
  
"Well I'd better get back to the ministry." Tonks said. It seemed that she had gotten over the shock of running from the law. "After all if I take too many sick days it'll begin to look as if." She was cut off by a soft hooting sound. All three of them looked up to see a scrawny brown owl fly into the room. It dropped a small note into Sirius's hand before flying off again out the opposite window.  
  
"It's from Dumbledore." Sirius said reading the note.  
  
"There's to be another meeting tonight."  
  
"And I suppose this is another exclusive affair to which I am not invited?" Ebony burst out suddenly.  
  
"Unfortunately, becoming a criminal does not entitle full fledged membership to the order. If it did I wouldn't be stuck here." Sirius said more bitterly than he had anticipated.  
  
"First of all, I've told you what happened wasn't my fault!" Ebony retorted. "And second, at least you know what's going on! I'm stuck here with out a clue as to who I am or why everyone became so interested in me after I had that dream."  
  
Sirius and Tonks looked at each other slightly taken back. It must have shown because Ebony now bore a self-satisfied smile.  
  
"I 'm not a complete idiot you know. I realised that none of you went to bed after I told you about that nightmare. And I know that it's no coincidence that my bedroom is right above the kitchen. I've been trying to talk to some one about it for a week. But every time I mentioned nightmares, or corridors, everyone, even the kids became temporarily deaf. Now what's going on ?!" She demanded  
  
Tonks and Sirius simply starred at her for a few seconds. Then Tonks spoke.  
  
"I think you'd better handle this Sirius." She said fairly quickly. "It'll make a good topic for the first lesson any way." And before Sirius could stop her, Tonks dis-apperated from the room with a loud crack. Ebony was now starring stubbornly at him. He would have to tell her. There was no use putting it off. He was sure that she would be able to handle it, no matter how disturbing it seemed. She was after all a full grown woman.  
  
"Allright, you want the truth? Here it is." He started rather weakly  
  
"Obviously you already know that your memory's been modified."  
  
"Obviously," Said Ebony impatiently. "Go on."  
  
"The order thinks that it may have been modified by some one on the other side. The dark side." Ebony was now sitting at the edge of the couch. Her curly black hair fell around her face making her look like a wild animal ready to pounce.  
  
" The dream. about the corridor and the door? The thing is Harry's been having a very similar reoccurring dream. And most important of all, the laugh you heard.do you know who lord Voldemort is?"  
  
Ebony nodded  
  
"Harry told me about him. He's sort of the leader of the dark side. He was very powerful about fifteen years ago, but when he tried to kill Harry the curse somehow failed and re bounded on him. He lost all his power. He's been weak until last year when Harry saw him return. But what dose he have to do with my dream?"  
  
"The laughter you heard belonged to him." Sirius said rather hesitantly. This revelation did not however, have the effect he had been expecting. He continued  
  
"We think that Voldemort's laugh might have very well been the last thing you heard before you lost your memory. Do you remember if you've had any dreams after that first night?"  
  
"Well yes. I have them almost every night. The details aren't as clear as the first night, but I do remember that there's always a corridor that I'm forced to walk down. And I always hear that high pitched laugh, Voldemort's laugh just before I wake up." Ebony said. She had a very concentrated expresion on her face. Sirius had a feeling he might be breaking through the charm. If he could just get a little farther in.  
  
"Do you remember anything else besides the dreams?" Sirius asked. He felt a jolt of excitement as Ebony began to think again.  
  
"No. Except for the dreams, my mind's completely blank."  
  
"Oh." Sirius said disappointedly. He didn't know why he felt so miss lead. It was a large achievement to have enabled Ebony to even remember the dreams. To ask her to remember anything else about her past would have been pushing it. Still he had been so intrigued by her and so curious about her past life that he had probably set himself up for disappointment.  
  
"Wait!" Ebony said after a few moments silence. Sirius began to feel a rush of excitement again.  
  
"What is it?" He asked a bit too enthusiastically. Ebony was now putting her hand to her head and her brow was furrowed with concentration.  
  
" ' Tomorrow we'll discover.' that's one of the last things I remember saying. Only I don't remember really saying it, I think I sang it. Is that completely obsurd?" She looked up at Sirius questioningly.  
  
"Not at all. It might be part of a spell, maybe an incantation. Do you remember anything else?"  
  
"No. no that's it I think. Maybe I'll be able to think more clearly by tomorrow." She added cheerfully "Fancy a spot of tea?" She asked him suddenly Sirius smiled weakly. "Sure" he said. Ebony smiled back and moved into the kitchen.  
  
Sirius gave a small sigh as he moved to sit down on the couch. He was certain of one thing, life with Ebony would not be boring. And who knew. Maybe it would pay to have a second fugitive living in the mansion. 


	6. Leson from the Order

**Lesson From the Order**

The months went by slowly as they always seemed to at Grimmuald place. The white snow was replaced by green grass and tulips. A warm inviting breeze began to fill the air.

One thing, however, remained constant despite the changing seasons; Sirius was still caged within the large mansion.

True, that it was not nearly as dismal as it had been before Ebony's arrival. Sirius had in fact found a solace in Ebony's company.

With Remus gone on business for the order a large amount of the time, Ebony had become his sole confidante and often a vent for his frustration. She listened to him and often agreed with him about both their treatment by Dumbledore (whom she had still never met) and the order. That is not to say that she did not have criticisms stored for Sirius as well.

"And I suppose I'm no more than another burden for the poor, struggling, hero to bear!" Ebony had told Sirius one night after he had again complained about having to stay at the house with nothing useful to do for the order.

" Well, where have these lessons got us? Think about it Ebony, What have you remembered since we started?" Sirius said as he paced between a chair and the sofa of the living room "I've told you I'm trying."

"You can try as hard as you like! It's a lost cause and Dumbledore knows it."

"It may be a lost cause to you, but it's not your memory is it? " She said.

When he made no reply the self satisfied look that had become familiar to Sirius spread across her face.

"Honestly, do you think you're the only one who has to put up with this kind of frustration? I would remind you that I'm forced to stay locked up here to!"

"You think it's bad here, try it in Azkaban." Sirius muttered to himself. But Ebony heard him.

"That's right no matter how bad things are for anyone else, there always worse for you aren't they? Sometimes I think that great- great- Grandfather of yours is right. You like nothing more than to wallow in your own self pity."

"So you've been talking to his portrait have you?" he said bitterly.

"Well in this house it's either talk to him or talk to you." Ebony said as she began to stand up from the couch she'd been sitting on. Sirius could tell she was about to walk out on him again.

"And I must confess there are times when I prefer the portrait!"

Just as he had predicted Ebony stalked up the stairs to her bedroom. At first Sirius turned away in a huff. After she was gone however, he was forced to smile. They would make up later, they always did.

That night Sirius awoke with a start on the couch in front of the fire, (which he had lately taken to sleeping on). His nightmares, the ones that seemed to be left over from Azkaban, of the pale, and dead, faces of his friends, were coming more and more frequently. Being shut up all day in the gloomy excuse for a house was certainly not helping.

He sat brooding on the couch for a few moments before he was stirred again by the soft padding of bare feet climbing carefully down the stairs.

"Sirius?" He heard Ebony say softly from the stair well.

"What're you doing up?" He asked darkly, the memory of their last argument was still fresh in his mind.

"Nightmare." She said lightly, shrugging her shoulders, trying to appear as if it really didn't bother her all that much. But the puffy red patches under her eyes and the small sniffle that somehow managed to escape her mouth, gave her away.

"Good to know I'm not the only one." Sirius muttered.

"You too?" she asked, giving another small sniff.

He nodded as he moved over to make room for her on the couch next to him.

She took the spot next to Sirius, bringing her knees to her chest and curling up, almost cat like on the cushion. He had seen her crawl into this position so often that he wondered if she was able to sleep any other way. Not that he minded, that left more room for him on the couch.

"Sirius..." Ebony asked after a silence.

"Hmm...?" He asked, still a bit groggy.

"Mind if I stay down here tonight?"

"Why not? You're already here aren't you?"

They had been through this routine before. It usually happened after they had had a particularly loud argument. Sirius was beginning to think she planned it that way, and was slightly surprised to find that he didn't mind one bit.

It was better than having one of them apologize at any rate. (Something which neither party would ever do freely). And it was nice to have someone to fall asleep next to.

"'night Sirius." Ebony said drowsily staring up at him. She wouldn't fall asleep until he said it. She never did. It had become something like their own version of "I'm sorry"

"Good night Ebony." With a satisfied smile Ebony closed her eyes.

Sirius watched her for a few moments. Sometimes he thought he liked her best like this.

When she slept she looked, harmless, calm, innocent. But he couldn't complain when she was awake either. True, she could irritate him to no end, but at least she made him feel..._something_. No one had been able to do that since he had moved into Grimuald place

Even arguing with Ebony didn't bother him any more. Somehow the more often he argued with her the more alive he felt.

The days, and weeks and months continued like this. Every day Sirius would give Ebony lessons to try and restore her memory. Every day, it seemed to become more hopeless. He had watched Ebony rack her brains for nearly five months.

She often thought so hard and worked for so long to remember anything about her past that she would give herself head aches or sometimes even faint from exhaustion. She had remembered close to nothing since the first day.

The only thing of significance was that Ebony had somehow found, or rediscovered a talent for singing. She could often be heard belting out Celestina Warbeck songs she had heard on the radio. Still, as May dawned on the mansion, Sirius half felt as if he had failed the order by not breaking through the memory charm.

This feeling was made worse at an order meeting one night. They were happening more and more sporadically since Dumbledore's arrest. Sirius happened to get the call for this particular meeting just after He, Remus and Ebony had finished dinner.

As always, Ebony put up a fight to try and stay, but in the end Sirius and Remus managed to coax her out of the kitchen before the rest of the order arrived.

At first it was more of the same. Kingsley gave his report on how the ministry now were successfully convinced that the lead about Sirius hiding in London was a dead end. There was more discussion of the guarding of the prophesy.

The meeting was nearly over when Moody Said "And now, Sirius, where are you on the memory charm?"

The subject had not come up since the day Sirius had told the rest of the order the phrase that Ebony said she remembered singing.

"To tell the truth, I haven't made much more progress." Sirius said feeling slightly ashamed.

"Have you tried putting a wand in her hand?" asked moody. He had not even thought about it. Now that Mad Eye had mentioned it, it seemed fairly obvious. However in an attempt to salvage himself, Sirius thought it best to simply pretend to know what he was doing.

"No. I assumed it would be, well somewhat dangerous at this stage."

"Call the girl in."

"Are you sure about this Mad eye?" Sirius heard Tonks ask as he went to fetch Ebony from the attic. As soon as he closed the door however, he found that the long journey up the stairs would not be necessary.

Ebony sat feet from the door looking up expectantly at Sirius

"Why do they want to see me?"

"Extendable ears not working as well these days?" Sirius asked smiling

"Fred and Gorge didn't leave me any when they left for school." Ebony said somewhat bitterly as Sirius led her into the kitchen.

"Ebony, are you sure you haven't remembered anything since January?" Tonks asked

"Yes... I mean no... Why?" Ebony looked around the table bewildered, yet she still seemed almost childishly anxious.  
  
"Thought we'd try something," Remus said standing from the Table. He pulled his own wand out of his tattered robes and handed it to Ebony. She stared at it hesitantly.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Just say whatever comes to your head" said Kingsley.

Most of the table now held their gaze on Ebony (save for Mundungus who was snoring away on the right corner of his chair.). Perhaps for the first time since he had known her, Sirius saw a hint of fear sketched in Ebony's face, as she stared around at the expectant order members.

"But I...I can't!" She stammered. "I don't know any spells! And...what if... what if something goes wrong?!"

"Don't worry about that now, just think." Remus said.

Ebony still looked apprehensive, but stared down at the wand in deep concentration. Minuets passed, no one said anything. Ebony still held the wand her eyes closed and her brow furrowed. Sirius could tell what was coming next. It had happened before in their lessons. Ebony would soon either be writhing in pain from a headache or lying on the floor in a dead faint.  
  
"Can't we leave it here for the night?" Sirius asked. No sooner had he said this however than.

"_Lumos_" Remus's wand ignited in a fiery blaze that sent several sparks flying over Mundungus awakening him from a dead stupor.("Huh? oh...'meeting over?") The entire table stared even closer at Ebony who had dropped the wand and jumped back several feet, looking as if she'd seen a ghost.  
  
"Do you remember where you learned those words?" Remus asked after a rather long and tense pause.

"I- I think I remember . I remember reading them. Like I remember reading Harry's name. That's how I knew it I think." Ebony put her hand to her head again.

"You'd better go back up to bed." Sirius said.

"Fine." She answered. She tried to sound indignant but Sirius could tell she was grateful.

"I suppose you were right mad eye." Tonks said once the kitchen door had closed behind Ebony.

"Right about what?" Sirius asked. It was clear the rest of them knew something he didn't.

"Right in thinking that the girl is not who she says she is." Growled moody.

Sirius wasn't quite sure of what he was hearing. Surely, they couldn't be rethinking the memory charm theory. They had seen that Ebony could not even properly hold a wand.

"I still don't understand." Sirius said skeptically

"The thing is," Remus began hesitantly, "Memory charms, proper memory charms affect both the short term and the long term memory. The first night she was here Ebony remembered not only her name, but also a name she claims to have read. That made, well it made Mad Eye, suspicious."

"It's very possible that the charm could have begun to wear off at that point." Said Sirius more defensively than he had intended.

"Then why didn't she remember everything that happened after that?" Asked Moody. Sirius tried to think of a rebuttle. He realized that he didn't have one. Mad-eye did have a point. But Ebony couldn't be lying, she couldn't. Not to him.

"This is ridiculous! You saw what she did with that wand. She could barely remember how to perform the spell and when she finally did it, well, it didn't even come out properly." Sirius spoke very quickly he could feel blood rushing to his face.

"But she remembered." Mad eye said quietly. "As long as we are this suspicious she can't stay here. The girl will have to leave."

"Her name is Ebony." Sirius said heatedly through clenched teeth.

"And if she doesn't stay here, where is she supposed to go?" He looked around the table hoping for some amount of support but they all seemed to avert his eyes.

Each of the order members wore identical looks of grief. It was as if someone had died.

"Sirius Mad-eye is right. It's dangerous to keep her here when we're so unsure." Tonks said almost as if she were comforting a boy who had lost a dog.

Sirius turned away slightly from the table. They spoke about Ebony as if she were some dangerous animal that had to be disposed of. They were wrong about her, somehow he would prove it. Tonks got up form the table, Kingsley followed. "Just think about it Sirius," Tonks said.

"Fine. I'll think about it." Sirius said more to please her than anything else. There were two loud cracks and Tonks and Kingsley vanished from the room.

"I'm Going to bed." Sirius said quietly as he moved from the table. None of them dared to stop him.

As he opened the kitchen door, he nearly ran over a large lump laying next to it. He only had to see the betrayed look on ebony's face to know that she had heard everything.

He opened his mouth to tell her that everything would be allright, that she wasn't going anywhere. But before he could say anything, she hurried up the stair well and out of sight.


	7. The Escape

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone but Ebony.  
  
Author's note: Sorry about the computer mess up with the last chapter. I can be kind of technologically challenged sometimes. This chapter might be a bit slow moving, but it's necessary. The exciting parts coming I promise.  
  
Chapter seven: The Escape  
  
Sirius headed for his bed room, not really intending to sleep. His mind was crammed with thoughts about the events of the night. He knew he had to do something. He wasn't sure what. Ebony could not leave the house. She was wanted already by the ministry of Magic, if they found her out on the street somewhere it could be catastrophic not only for her, but for the order. The things she could tell them if they forced her to were innumerable.  
  
Besides, they had no reason to throw Ebony out. She wasn't, she couldn't be a spy. Of course, he thought, the real reason he wanted her to be innocent was a very selfish one. He simply didn't want her to leave. It had become impossible to contemplate life at Grimmuald place without her. Even thinking about the concept was nearly unbearable. He had no idea why he felt so strongly for a person he had only met less than five months ago, but he knew she was innocent. She had to be. Still, There was a small voice of uncertainty muttering through his brain. How well did he really know her ? Could he be certain she was telling the truth? The more he thought about it, the more he realised there was no way to be absolutely sure about Ebony.  
  
Sirius continued to stare at the wall beside his bed. No matter how he looked at it Ebony's situation was hopeless. He knew Mad- Eye Moody wouldn't take no for an answer. Especially not after what happened last year. Sirius was willing to bet that Mad-Eye would toss her out into the street himself if he got the opportunity. The only possibility of keeping Ebony safe while satisfying the rest of the order was to sneak her out of the house and find somewhere else for her to stay. Someplace where no one, especially not any one from the ministry, could possibly find her. He sat for several moments racking his brain for a way to execute his plan. It was quite a while before he remembered. There was a Hippogriff in the room directly above his. Of course! How could he have forgotten about Buckbeak. He had used Buckbeak to escape once, he was certain Ebony would be able to use him to do the same thing. She could fly to the cave above Hogsmead. That was where Sirius had hid for several months without being detected. Surely no one would be able to find her there. This new plan was useless, however, if he didn't at least talk to Ebony about it. This was the part he dreaded. But Sirius knew it couldn't wait another minuet.  
  
With very little hesitation he left his bedroom to climb the many stairs to the attic. Surely she would not be asleep. Not after everything she had heard. Moments seemed like hours before Sirius finally reached her door. He rapped very softly. She heard him  
  
"Come in."  
  
He opened the door. Ebony sat, wide-awake, at the small windowsill over looking the neighboring street. Her knees were pressed close to her chest and she had wrapped herself in the cloak she wore when she had been found in the snow bank. Her hair fell loosely across her shoulders and in the lamp light created a ripple effect that Sirius had only seen before in ponds or rivers.  
  
" What is it?" She asked coldly. Transfixed, he had lost his train of thought.  
  
"I just." He started weakly.  
  
"If you came here to apologize there's no need." She said still staring out the window.  
  
"Why not?" Sirius asked. He could feel his temper beginning to rise again. Why had he expected this to go smoothly?  
  
"Because you were right of course." She answered as she turned to face him.  
  
"After all why should you trust me? I'm just a nutter you found off the street! I'm surprised, no, shocked that you didn't chuck me out earlier, if I'm that expendable! It's almost like being able to get rid of that old house elf isn't it?"  
  
"That's not true and you know it!" He said heatedly  
  
"Then what is true Sirius? Tell me! What is the truth?" Ebony was now standing with her arms folded across her chest, a stubborn look penetrated her pale face. Sirius took several moments trying to devise a sharp comeback for her question before he realised that they had little if no time to argue. The next meeting was scheduled for the following week and if Sirius knew Mad eye, he would want Ebony gone long before then.  
  
"Come on. I need to show you something." And before she could say anything Sirius had taken Ebony by the hand and was leading her down two flights of stairs into Buckbeak's room.  
  
All though he had told Ebony all about the hippogriff he had used to escape from the dememtors, he had never introduced her to Buckbeak. There was no use putting it off if Ebony was to escape within the week.  
  
"Promise me you won't scream." Sirius warned her as he moved to open the door. Ebony rolled her eyes. "Why on earth would I-" She let out a very high pitched gasp as Sirius opened the door to reveal the enormous winged creature chewing on a large bone he had been fed after dinner.  
  
Ebony stood fixed in the door way. Her eyes were glazed and her mouth hung slightly open in shock. "This is Buckbeak." Sirius said. She simply nodded and continued to stare at the hippogriff. Buckbeak was now looking up at the bone he'd been knawing. Ebony shook her head slightly as if waking herself from a trance. Then, before Sirius could stop her she approached Buckbeak cautiously. They stared each other down for a few moments. Sirius began to prepare for the worst. He was amazed when Ebony very suddenly bent her knees into a very quick bow. He had never told her how to befriend a hippogriff. And he was sure there were no books in the house on the subject.  
  
"How did you know to do that?" Sirius asked.  
  
Ebony, who was now stroking a content looking Buckbeak, shrugged.  
  
"I don't know. I guess the same way I knew Percy Weasly was a git when I first met him, or how I knew that spell." She answered non-chalantly. A wave of doubt was washing over Sirius's mind again. It must have showed in his face, because Ebony began to stare at him with the same betrayed look that he had seen just after the order meeting.  
  
"You don't believe me." She said quietly. "I knew you wouldn't." She went back to petting the tip of the hippogriff's beak.  
  
Sirius opened his mouth to contest, but found that there was nothing to say. He couldn't lie and say that he believed her completely, but he couldn't tell her that she had to leave either. Ebony must have sensed his dilemma because she quickly changed the subject.  
  
"So, this is how you escaped all those dememtors." She said as she began to circle the hippogriff.  
  
"All this time I'd been picturing some sort of winged horse! How ever did you manage to keep something like this out of sight for a year?" She looked up at him eagerly. Sirius smiled in spite of himself. He must have told her the story at least a dozen times. She always seemed to enjoy hearing it.  
  
"Well, it wasn't easy." He began. And soon he was hastily re telling the story of his life as a fugitive, completely forgetting the urgency of Ebony's situation. He told her again of the two ghosts he'd met in France and the vampire convention he'd listened in on in Transylvania. Ebony sat on the floor stroking Buckbeak and listening quietly. It wasn't until the story reached the cave in Hogsmead that Sirius remembered his plan. Should he tell her? He had to. She wouldn't take it lightly, he was sure of that. There was no doubt that she wanted to stay and would put up a decent fight if she was forced to leave. Still, this was the only way to keep her safe, if she didn't leave tonight the others would force her out later. Sirius opened his mouth to tell her this when:  
  
"I wish I could see it." Ebony said suddenly. "See what?" Sirius asked hopefully. "Hogsmead! Even from a cave it sounds wonderful!" This was perfect! Perhaps he wouldn't have to tell her about the plan after all. Maybe he could just convince her to leave for Hogsmead of her own accord. She already knew about the cave, and would have sense enough not to be seen by any one.  
  
"Oh it is!" Sirius exclaimed a little too enthusiastically. "I'd venture to say it's the most lovely spot I've ever been in, and I have been to quite a few." To his great relief Ebony was staring out the window as she listened to him, looking extremely anxious. "In fact.you could go tonight." Sirius said in what he hoped was a casual sort of voice. "The window's wide enough for you to take Buckbeak. It would only be for a day at the most, and you do need to get out of the house." She would see through it. She was certainly not an idiot after all, and you'd have to be to believe a story like the one he'd told her. Sure enough Ebony was now eyeing him suspiciously.  
  
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Ebony asked half jokingly. "No." Sirius added altogether too quickly. She gave him a playful sort of smile as she took up her habit of silently pacing around the room. Sirius watched her with great anticipation. He felt as if he were a defendant waiting for a verdict from a jury. No matter what went through his mind in those moments however, he could never have anticipated what would come next.  
  
"Why don't you come with me?" Ebony said abruptly. She had stopped pacing and now stood a foot to the right of Buckbeak. "What?" Sirius stammered. "Well, if it really would only be for one day and I really do just need to get out of the house, then what's the harm in you leaving the house too? God knows you need it more than I do, besides two fugitives are better than one." "But." Sirius began to protest. It was true something, perhaps even the majority of him wanted to go. Remus had left just after the meeting, on Order business. No one would miss him for only one day. Suddenly he wanted more than anything in the world to leave the clogged mansion behind if only for one day. But for some reason he could hear Molly Weasly's voice in his head telling him that if he left he would be endangering everything the order had worked for.  
  
"Well, if your scared, I completely understand, just an idea." Ebony said smiling playfully. She knew she had touched a nerve. "Fine! But just for a day." Sirius said as he moved to mount Buckbeak. Ebony's smile broadened. Sirius held out his hand to help her up onto the Hipogriff. He bent forward and unlatched the window. "Hold on." He said to Ebony who was now seated securely with her arms around his waist. And in less than two seconds they were rising far above the streets of london. Sirius felt a cool summer breeze on his face for the first time in months. For the first time in little less than a year, he was free. 


	8. Message in a Mirror

Chapter 8: Message in a mirror  
  
Buckbeak landed softly on the rock-laden cliff above Hogsmead village. Sirius carefully dis mounted the hippogriff, and stroked his beak in thanks. Ebony hurriedly slid off the end of Buckbeak's wing causing her to land clumsily on the hard stone below.  
  
She soon picked herself up and stared around, her eyes widening like a child in a candy store. She sprinted to the edge of the cliff and plopped down on her stomach watching the last star disappear from the sky. Sirius laughed as he followed her.  
  
"And what are you laughing at?" Ebony asked as she herself let out a slight giggle.  
  
"You" Sirius answered. She smiled lightly at him, as he sat down beside her on a large boulder.  
  
"You'll be able to see the village soon." He leaned over and whispered to her.  
  
"What does it look like?" She asked anxiously straining her eyes beyond the rocks.  
  
"Wait. You'll see." He said. She looked up at him sulkily  
  
"Sirius. You know how I hate waiting."  
  
He leaned closer to her  
  
"And you know how I love torturing you." He almost whispered with a playful smile  
  
"Mr. Black, are you trying to seduce me?" She pretended to be offended but her smile gave her away.  
  
"That depends. Can you be seduced?" He asked moving still closer to her  
  
"Not by the likes of you." She said in a feigned dignified manner, and turned away from him. But, Sirius was pleased to note that a blush had appeared in her cheeks.  
  
He looked out to see the sky turning a light purple colour. The sun would soon be rising from behind the hills to the east.  
  
"Very quiet up here isn't it?" Ebony asked tossing a few stones down the side of the cliff.  
  
"A bit." Sirius admitted. It did seem rather silent, especially at dawn. In fact, one would have to look at the buildings of the village bellow to see even the faintest hint of human civilization. The sun was beginning to show now, slowly creeping up behind the farther hills.  
  
"It must've been lonely, up here." Ebony said pensively.  
  
Sirius stared at her and then back out at the hills. The truth was that he remembered times when he was extremely lonely inside the cave with only Buckbeak for company. However, as he looked at Ebony's curious face, which had very suddenly been radiated by the rising sun, he felt the need to appear brave.  
  
"It wasn't extremely horrible." He answered indifferently. "Harry and Ron and Hermione did come to the cave once. And I was always transforming into snuffles and going down to the village for food scraps."  
  
It wasn't until he said this that he realised that the sun had now almost completely risen. The light of the sun brought a new danger. Villagers were beginning to awaken and go about the town. The light would reveal any one who was standing on the cliff. Immediately he willed himself to transform into a large black dog. Ebony stayed facing the sun and jumped slightly when Sirius pranced up behind her. She had never seen him transform before. He licked her cheek to ease her fears. She gave a slight laugh, scratched his ear and soon went back to starring into the hills.  
  
"You know Sirius, your right, this is the loveliest spot I've ever seen." She said in barely more than a whisper as she placed her hand over his paw. Her hand was warm. Strange, considering how long she had been shut up in a chilled, drafty mansion. Sirius had a fleeting desire to change back into a man.  
  
There was a few minuets silence. It was so quiet Sirius was sure anyone would be able to hear a pin drop on the stones. Perhaps that was why both he and Ebony turned their heads when a faint clinking noise sounded from just below them.  
  
"What's that?" Ebony whispered listening intently as the clinking slowly grew louder.  
  
In answer Sirius trotted further to the edge and looked down off the cliff to the path bellow. When he got there he could see a head of sleek blonde hair connected to an overcoat and a pair of black boots clinking against the stones on the path making their way up towards the cliff. Sirius turned to Ebony and clicked his head in the direction of the cave. She picked her self up and hurried to the black cave while Sirius followed at her heels. Once inside, neither of them could see anything but the faint form of Buckbeak, who out of habit had taken refuge there upon arrival. There was no way of seeing weather the man had reached the cliff or not, but Sirius was sure he would be able to hear anything. Realizing there was no point in his disguise any longer, he transformed into himself, causing Ebony to give a slight jump once again.  
  
He listened for a long while. The clicking noise had stopped. Now the only sound he could hear was Ebony shallow breathing from a corner near him. Soon the clicking resumed again, but this time he was sure it was coming from another side of the cliff. It was a few moments before that clicking stopped too. Sirius had a suspicious feeling that two men were standing directly outside the entrance to the cave.  
  
"Your sure no one saw?" The first man asked. Sirius's stomach gave a sudden jolt. He remembered that voice far too well. And if he was correct, as he was certain he was, it would not be the first time he had run across Lucious Malfoy on one of his outings.  
  
"No." The other man answered. His was a voice Sirius did not know. "None of them dare to suspect anyone."  
  
"Of course. None of them think there is anything to be suspicious of. Let us hope it remains so." Malfoy drawled.  
  
"Why did you want to meet with me, and here of all places?" The second voice asked quickly.  
  
"I thought it best to meet in the most unlikely of spots. The dark lord grows impatient. What have you found out about the girl?" At these words Sirius moved closer to Ebony. How could they have possibly even known she existed? With all the precautions placed around the house he was sure no one would have been able to know what went on there at all. Unless.  
  
"I know very little more than the elf has told us." Sirius had a sudden urge to kick something. Of course! Why hadn't he taken Kreatcher's strange absence during the holidays seriously?  
  
"She still has not gained full memory. I have a feeling that Dumbledore has grown suspicious of her."  
  
"We can not act on simple inclination! She is essential to the plan. Potter's dreams have included her for over five months, If we are to put our intentions into action tonight-"  
  
Malfoy stopped in mid sentence. Sirius realised too late why. He had been so shocked at the mention of Harry's dreams that he had not heard a rock he had been clutching on the side of the cave fall to the ground with an echoing crash.  
  
Ebony gave an audible gasp. Sirius put his hand over her mouth to silence her, but the damage had already been done. He could hear the clicking of Malfoy's boots slowly walking in the direction of the cave. The only chance they had now was to run for it.  
  
"There's a passage on the other side of the cave that leads back to the cliff. Take Buckbeak through there. I'll be right behind you." Sirius whispered quickly.  
  
"But." Ebony began to protest. He could hear Malfoy coming nearer to the entrance of the cave.  
  
"Hurry!" Sirius said a little too loudly. Ebony grabbed Buckbeak by the collar and led him at a brisk pace to the other side of the cave Sirius saw them disappear through a lightened tunnel on the other side. He looked back to see Malfoy's blonde hair emerging quickly at the first entrance to the cave before he followed them to the passage at a run. Sirius could hear the quick clicking of Malfoy's feet following him all the way to the other end of the passage. When he reached the other end of the tunnel, Ebony pulled him up to the cliff. They both mounted the hippogriff just before Malfoy reached up through the tunnel.  
  
"Go!" Sirius yelled. Buckbeak took off as quickly as he possibly could. Sirius looked back to the cliff to see Malfoy throwing jinxes in their direction all in a failed attempt to bring them back down.  
  
"Now do you believe me?" Ebony asked him sharply once they were safely in the air. Sirius didn't answer. She was stubborn but so was he. And he would rather die than admit that she was right.  
  
"Who were those men?" She asked in reply to his silence  
  
"Death eaters." Sirius replied.  
  
"Then how did they know about Harry's dreams and me and."  
  
"The poor oppressed house elf sold us out!" He answered bitterly. To his amazement she made no reply.  
  
"I'll have to tell the others as soon as we get back. And I need to speak to Harry if I can. If their plotting something to do with him we've got to find out what it is and counter it." Neither of them spoke for the rest of the journey. There was only one thing on Sirius's mind. He had to tell Harry. He was completely uncertain of how to reach him. All the floo networks were being watched by the ministry, he couldn't go to Hogwarts himself. Even as snuffles he was sure to be caught.  
  
It was probably near five thirty or six o'clock in the afternoon when they finally landed back at the house. They had little time if any to get in contact with the rest of the order.  
  
"Ebony, Remus left an owl in the down stairs cellar in case I needed to get a hold of him. Find it quickly and bring it back up here." Ebony nodded silently. As she turned to leave the room, however she stopped at the mirror.  
  
"What's HE doing here?" She asked turning to Sirius. He moved from the window to see the mirror clearly. When he looked inside he was met with the unpleasant sallow face of Severus Snape starring up at him.  
  
"What's happened? Is Harry all right?" He asked sharply of Snape who sneered at him.  
  
"Potter is perfectly healthy. In fact, he seems to be labouring under the delusion that it is you who are in grave danger." Snape said cooly.  
  
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked through clenched teeth.  
  
"Potter was in Umbridge's office saying that she," Snape stopped to stare at Ebony and then continued. "had taken you to the department of ministrys where the weapon was hidden. He is convinced that you are at this moment being tortured by the dark lord himself. But seeing as you are both here one can not help but question Potter's mental state."  
  
"You were the one who stopped giving him lessons!" Sirius bellowed. He suddenly felt a rage burning inside him that had felt only once before, that was when he was prepared to commit murder.  
  
"But I was not the one who insisted on keeping a spy in headquarters was I?" Said Snape coldly. He fixed Ebony with another glare that, Sirius noted with rage, took in much more than her face.

He moved protectively in front of her, in an attempt to block her from Snape's view. As he did so, Sirius realised that Ebony looked as murderous as he felt.  
  
"She is not a spy!" He said putting a protective sort of arm around her waist.

A sneer played on Snapes lips.  
  
"How quaint." He said softly. "Can it possibly be that romance has blosomed on the filthiest spot on earth?"  
  
"That's it!"Sirius yelled moving forward. This time it was Ebony's turn to hold him back. To Sirius's surprise she was smiling as she pulled him away from the mirror.  
  
"And what would it be to you if it had?" She asked of Snape. Before he could retort Ebony yawned.  
  
"Well, if you two don't mind I am rather tired, and I'm sure you have very pressing matters to discuss so I'll head off to bed." She began to move across the room. But before she left, she stopped directly in front of Sirius and kissed him.  
  
It was quite possibly the most intoxicating thing he had ever felt in his life. The warmth he remembered from feeling her hand seemed to course through his entire body as he began to return her kiss with twice as much ardor.  
  
The only thing that was keeping him from deepening this particular kiss was the fact that his godson's life was in danger. This, he reminded himself, was certainly not the time to fall in love. Still, it was with immense disappointment that he eventually pulled himself away from her mouth  
  
"Good night Sirius" She said smiling as she also pulled away.  
  
"Professor." She added nodding curtly in the direction of the mirror. Sirius found that he had trouble keeping a straight face as he saw the look Snape wore as he watched Ebony leave the room. It was a comic mixture of confusion and disgust mixed with the smallest hint of envy.  
  
"Well, was there anything else _professor_?" Sirius asked encouraged by Ebony's move.  
  
Snape glared at him for a moment but seemed unable to speak. Soon with one last dark sneer he left the mirror. Suddenly remembering the owl, Sirius headed down stairs to the cellar.  
  
He almost hated himself for feeling so light hearted at a time when there was so much at stake. He tried as hard as he could to keep his mind on the order and Harry, but found that it kept wandering up to the attic where Ebony lay asleep.

He couldn't really remember the last time he had felt this way, but he knew it must have been a good 16 years since he had kissed any one and at least that long since he had fallen in love. As he sent the owl out the bottom window carrying the note for Remus, he felt, even though his Godson's life was hanging in the balance, the happiest he had ever been in his entire life.


	9. What went on before

Chapter nine: What went on before  
  
Ebony closed the door to her bed room behind her and let out a heavy sigh as she flopped onto her bed. It wasn't a sad or pensive sigh like usual. This was content, and light. She was tired beyond belief but could not even imagine sleeping. Her heart raced and she could feel her pulse pounding in her wrist. She enjoyed the sensation so much that she let out a full laugh that she was sure would be audible to any one in the mansion, no matter how big it was.  
  
It would have been easy to say that she had never felt this way before, but Ebony knew that was a lie. She didn't remember when she had felt this way before would have been more accurate. For, as she constantly reminded herself, she didn't remember much of anything past five months ago. Usually, this thought would have perplexed, or depressed her, but now it didn't seem to matter any more. She wasn't really interested in who she had been before Grimmuald place. She was Ebony to Sirius and that was all that really mattered. And as far as she was concerned, she could stay Ebony for the rest of her life.  
  
"Ebony Black" She muttered to herself as she reluctantly crawled under the covers to her bed. A bit redundant maybe she thought. Still, it has a lovely ring to it. And with this thought she happily drifted off to sleep.  
  
.. She was soon back in the corridor again. This time she didn't try to turn back as she was forced to the door at the end. She waited to hear the laughter and see the green light but they never came. Instead she found that there was a light coming from the wide open black door, almost inviting her inside. She moved closer to the door and passed through it.  
When she did, she found herself not inside a black room, but what looked like some kind of theater. All around her she could hear people hurriedly shouting things about setting curtains or bustling about carrying strange objects. Her body seemed to know her way through this theater even if her mind had no clue where she was. She instinctively ran past a crimson curtain that led to a stage where she could faintly hear the sound of music being played. She hurried up to a large board which had tacked to it a list with names of different people. She picked up a pencil under the sheet and scrolled down the list to find the name Elsman, Janie. She placed two initials next to the name and ran further down the hall where just before she reached a set of stairs, she ran into a middle aged man with balding hair.  
  
"Janie you're late." He said to her as she hurried past him and kept up the stairs "I know Charlie." She heard herself call back to him. But how did she know him? And what was the name that he had called her? "For God's sake it's opening night!" He yelled to her as she continued to hurry up the stairs. "Look! It won't happen again okay?" She called back. She was sure she heard the man she seemed to know, say something else but she didn't pay attention. There was more bustling and scurrying in the small corridor just after the stair well. She also noticed people around her who were dressed in very odd clothing. She immediately headed down this hallway and walked straight into a room with a small drawing table. On the drawing table there was some kind of chest. Ebony opened it to find every sort of makeup product imaginable. There were face powders, eye shadows, and lipsticks, as well as wax to make your ears and nose seem longer and several long brushes to give you wrinkles. She immediately seemed to know what to do. She took a bottle labeled "Fair foundation" opened it, poured a little on her front two fingers and rubbed it onto her face. Once she was done, she inspected herself quickly in the mirror before applying, rouge and eye shadow to her face as well as mascara and dark eyeliner. Last of all she picked up a small black face powder and spread it on to her cheeks, giving her a slightly grungy appearance. She checked the mirror once more and then looked at the clock, which had been placed on the wall next to her drawing table. The clock read 7:45. This seemed to worry her. She heard herself sware under her breath as she nearly sprinted to a rack packed with clothing.  
  
She grabbed a very tattered looking skirt, blouse, belt, and red cap from one of three outfits. She was about to undress when to her apparent shock the door opened to reveal a tall slightly mousy looking boy with parted brown hair. He was wearing a black sort of overcoat and a very tight looking ruffled tie about his neck  
  
"Aaron what the bloody hell are you doing in here?" She heard herself ask in a frantic sort of voice. This was another person she seemed to know. But how could she? The young man, who she knew, simply smirked.  
  
"Just thought you might like to see this." He said. His voice did sound slightly familiar. "What?" She asked sharply. "Very interesting mention of the show in the paper this morning." He said as he showed her a small clipping from a newspaper.  
  
"If your talking about those idiots in the times, I've already read it." She said barusquly turning away from him. "Well, then you don't mind if I call you Ebony then do you?" He said in a very sarcastic tone. She felt herself frown immediately. Although she wasn't sure why.  
  
"My character's name is EPONINE. Just because those idiotic journalists are too stuck in their own insane trivium to so much as read the program of a show they're writing about doesn't mean that you can go -"  
  
"Okay, okay, I was only joking. By the way, What are you doing tonight?" She rolled her eyes at him and responded very cooly.  
  
"Nothing that you'd be interested in. Now would you please get out of my room?" "Why should I?" The boy said with another smirk. He moved to sit down in one of the chairs and put his feet up on the dressing table. As soon as he did however, Ebony, or Janie, or whoever she was, walked over to him grabbed him by the shirt and nearly through him out the door. She slammed the door behind her and began to move back to the rack when she heard the boy say. "See you on stage then EBONY." As soon as he said this she took off her shoe and threw it at the door. She sighed heavily and put on her, was it a costume? She wasn't sure of anything anymore. Obviously this was some shadow of the life she had lead before she landed in Grimmuald place.  
  
Once she had changed she moved back to her dressing table and opened one of the doors. Inside she fond a book bearing a slightly faded illustration of a phoenix in red and gold. Above the illustration was the title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. So this was where she had read Harry's name! She opened the book to a marked page and had no sooner begun to read when there was another knock on the door. "Come in." She said exasperatedly. "Five minuets Jane." Said an older man who had peaked his head through the door. "Thanks Otto." She said with a sigh as she began to close her book. Otto suddenly looked down at the book in her lap. "How many times have you read that book?" He asked her in an interested sort of voice. She could now hear a faint hint of a foreign accent in his speech. "Five." She answered as she got up to straighten her skirt. "It's only been out a week hasn't it." He said now staring rather fixedly at her. "Since last Friday, well, Saturday technically." She was now putting a last touch of powder on her cheeks. She heard the foreign man give a small "hmm." before he said "Three minuets now, you'd bettered get down there." And with that he left the room. She didn't follow right away. Instead she opened the book in her lap to read the last sentence on the page: 'And then from right behind them a drawling voice said, "Very good Potter now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."'  
  
She had very little time to think as she read this. What did this mean? if this book, or whatever it was, told the future then maybe Harry really was in danger. She began to read more when she heard a voice from down the stair well yell  
  
"places for scene 11!" She shut the book and hurriedly walked out of the room, back down the stair well and into a small space to the right of the stage. When she got there, she seemed to be very out of breath and she heard her stomach give a low and some what painful growl. Obviously the people near her had heard it to because a young woman wearing a black dress and brown curls whispered, "Janie are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine" she answered. "Just a bit hungry." The girl in the black dress suddenly became very stern  
  
"Janie what have you eaten today?" She asked sharply.  
  
"I'll eat when I get home." Janie whispered defensively. "Stop acting so maternal."  
Soon she walked onto the stage. She stood at the edge, lights blaring in her eyes. The theater on the other side of the stage gave the distinct aura of being packed up to the balcony with theater goers. She saw the boy who had been in her dressing room across the stage from her. She immediately crossed to him. He opened his mouth as if to say something to her, but instead he sang, " Hey Eponine what's up today, I haven't seen you much about." There was the name again. Eponine, not Ebony. She gathered that this was the name of the character she was playing. So if this was her "stage name" was Janie her real name? She heard herself sing back to the boy "Here you can always find me in."  
  
It was not until she began to sing that she realised just how bizarre her situation was. She had lived five months with out a clue as to who she was, then all of a sudden her past was thrust upon her in a dream. Now she was singing words and melodies that her head didn't remember on a stage she had no memory of ever being on. And what if she never woke up from this dream? What if she went on the rest of her life trying to put together pieces of a broken puzzle? She continued to sing various lines of songs she didn't remember. Then finally she left the stage and headed up to her room. She sat in her chair and began reading her book again. Her mind was racing. Would this book tell her if Harry and the others were indeed in trouble? She had heard herself say that she had read this book five times. Did Janie know what was going to happen already? She had not read more than two words when The old man whom she had called Otto came into the room again.  
  
"They'll want you down stairs again soon." He said. "Allready?" She asked incredulously. Otto smiled and nodded. "Everything does seem to go quickly on opening night doesn't it?" Ebony or Eponine or Janie rolled her eyes and began to close the book again. "So how did you take Sirius's death?" He asked suddenly. Ebony felt as if she had been plunged into a tub of ice water. Janie frowned and lowered her head.  
  
"Otto, you didn't have to bring that up did you? I've had a bad enough day as it is." She felt like saying "What! No it's not true! He was fine when I fell asleep!" until she remembered that she was not in control of her own actions in this dream.  
  
"You are about to read it again are you not?" Otto asked. There was a slightly odd intensity to his voice.  
  
"I know. After I read it the first time I nearly vowed that I wouldn't read the rest of the series. That didn't last long, but still, talking about it doesn't exactly put me in the best of moods."  
  
Otto let out another "hmm." before he left the room as he said "about two minuets."  
  
She sighed another deep sigh, and stuffed the book back into the drawer. Her head felt as if it were on fire. Could Sirius be dying while she was dreaming? If she already knew he was dead was there any way to stop it from happening? Would there be time if she woke up? She headed down the stair well trying to ignore the increasing hunger and slight faintness she felt. She got back to the curtain and walked over to the boy with the brown hair who was about to follow a large group of people off stage. She whispered something in his ear and then pulled him back off stage in the opposite direction. Now she felt fainter, worse than before. She wasn't sure if this was out of worry for Sirius or out of hunger. She had heard herself say that she hadn't eaten all day, and she certainly felt like it.  
  
"'You okay?" The boy asked. She frowned. For a moment she felt as if she was going to faint. She took a deep breath and her senses came back to her.  
  
"I'm fine." She heard herself say. All though she still didn't feel fine. She half wished that she had fainted. Maybe then she would be able to wake up and perhaps even have time to save Sirius.  
  
"Come on. We're on again." The boy said still staring at her. They walked back onto the stage. She couldn't think about what she was singing, not that she remembered any of it. All she wanted to do was to wake up at Grimmuald place and stop Sirius from doing what ever stupid thing he was about to do. There were a few more moments when she felt as if she were going to faint again and was furious with herself when she failed to do so. Soon the stage was crowded back with actors as it had been when she had first walked onto it. Apparently this was the largest musical number of the show. She continued to sing not really listening, feeling particularly faint, when she heard herself sing it. "Tomorrow we'll discover."At that moment everything went black. She would soon be back in her bed at Grimuald place.  
  
She became frustrated again when she woke up, not in her attic bedroom but in a small room filled with card board and various other items. As she opened her eyes she saw several men and the girl in the black dress standing over her. "Janie, are you allright?" "What happened?" Janie asked. Why hadn't she woken up? "You fainted." She looked up to see the man who she had called Charlie when she first got to the theater. "Kinda funny really." Said the brown haired boy who was wearing a slight smirk. "Arron." The girl in the black dress said sharply "Well it was." Arron retorted "Will you be able to finish the show?" Charlie asked her. "Yeah sure." Janie answered trying to smile. "'just need a little rest that's all." "I'll take you up to your room." Otto said suddenly. She hadn't even realised that he was there. "It's no problem I can do it on my own-" But even as she tried to stand up she felt woozy again "Can't risk another fainting spell." Said Otto as he picked her up. He carried her in his arms as the girl in the black dress and the boy called Arron followed in his wake.  
  
When they reached her room, Otto placed Janie (or Eponine?) in the chair by the dressing table. The girl and Arron stood in the door way. "Are you sure you'll be okay Janie?" The girl asked apprehensively "Don't worry Marie, I've got the entire intermission. I'll be fine by the second act."Janie said. "Well if your sure." She said and she left the door way. The boy named Arron made sure the girl in the black dress was gone before he said "No matter what she says it was still funny watching Janie Elsman faint. If you don't watch it people'll start to think your goin' soft." He said half laughing. "Just get out!" Janie said exasperatedly. "See you then, EBONY." He said as he ran from the door as if he was expecting her to through something at him. Otto was now the only one left in the room besides her. He produced a slightly tattered black cloak and laid it over her. "Rest now." He whispered gently before he left the room. She laid her head down on the table and closed her eyes.  
  
Janie woke up with a start. She was back at Grimmuald place. She placed her hand on her head. The musical Le Miserable, the London apartment she shared with her best friend Marie, and the book, the fith instalment of the Harry Potter series. And Sirius. She remembered now. She remembered everything. 


	10. Awakening

Chapter 10: Awakening  
  
Janie lay dumbly in bed as the sensation ran over her. Her whole life had come flooding back to her in one frantic moment. She was remembering everything from her child hood all the way through to June 28th when she had fallen asleep back stage on the opening night of Le Miserables. She remembered her mother's death when she was only five, the foster home she had grown up in, the night she ran away 10 years before when she was sixteen. But was everything that had happened in the past five months a dream? Would she soon wake up to find herself back in her own dressing room? No. No she couldn't. It was too real to have been a dream. But if it wasn't a dream then.  
  
Janie tore the covers off her bed and nearly ran to the table to find her cloak. How long had she been asleep? It didn't matter if he had already left, she didn't have much time either way. She knew she had to get to Sirius, as quickly as she possibly could. She didn't want to take the time to get dressed again, her night gown with her black cloak on top would suffice.  
  
Janie moved to grab her cloak from the high-backed chair next to her writing desk. As she did, a small piece of parchment caught her eye. She grabbed it, unfolded it and hurriedly began to read.  
  
Ebony,  
  
I may already be back by the time you read this but in case I'm not, please don't worry. Harry's in a spot of trouble and Remus, Tonk's, Mad eye, Kingsly and I have gone to help him out of it. It might take a while but I will be home.  
  
Janie felt the unpleasant sensation of ice water running through her veins. He had already left. Her eyes scrolled down to the bottom of the parchment. There, in place of a signature, in bold letters as if they had been traced several times were the words: I Love You  
  
She felt a single tear well in her eye and fall across her cheek. She wiped it away hurriedly. This didn't mean any thing. There might still be time to save him. There had to be. With this renewed hope she took the parchment, hastily stuffed it in a pocket of her tattered cloak and ran down the stair well. There was a bag of floo powder next to the fireplace in the living room, she might still have time to stop everything before it happened.  
  
As she reached the bottom of the stairwell she could hear the echo of wheezy laughter resonating from the living room. "That must be Kreatcher" she thought bitterly feeling colder toward him than she had in the past five months. Indeed when she heard his gleeful laughter she had a sudden urge to strangle the elf with her own two hands. The only good thing about the elf's laugh meant that it wasn't too late. If Janie wasn't mistaken when she opened the door to enter the living room she would find Dumbledore listening to the whole tale.  
  
"Hello Ebony." Sure enough The old Wizard was standing next to the fire place. The twinkle in his blue eyes that Janie had always pictured while reading the books seemed particularly dim tonight. She knew of course why.  
  
"Professor. We've got to get to the ministry of magic as quickly as possible!"  
  
She didn't stop to think that this wasn't much of an introduction. Sirius would be dying at any moment and it was all she could do to stop the plummeting sensation in her stomach from continuing.  
  
"If we don't go soon enough Siri- something horrible is going to happen."  
  
"May I ask how you know this?"  
  
Janie was growing increasingly annoyed with Dumbledore's calm composure when she herself was so frantic. He doesn't know, she reminded herself. Of course he wouldn't panic yet. He had no idea that within minuets a member of the order would be lost forever. Shrouded behind some obscure black veil.  
  
Besides this she knew he wouldn't believe the truth about her story even if she chose to tell it to him.  
  
"It's far too complicated to go into now. Just trust me, please!" She said. Trying not to appear to impatient.  
  
"I'm afraid I can't trust you, at least not yet." Dumbledore told her in his annoyingly calm voice. "Not until I know the whole truth."  
  
Janie stood idley by the fire place listening to the clock on the mantle piece click ominously on. What could she possibly say? How would she go about telling him that he was a fictional charcter in a novel? What would he say if she told him that she came from a world where everything he knew was simply a figment of one person's imagination? At the same time, however, she was certain no lie would get passed Albus Dumbledore. In the end, she decided on fragmented truth.  
  
"There is a plot. a plan to murder. I read something I shouldn't have. That's why I came here. That's all I can say now."  
  
Dumbledore was still eyeing her wearily. He didn't believe her.  
  
"You already know from the elf that I'm not a spy!" Janie said throwing a heated glance at Kreatcher who grinned evily. She swallowed the urge to strike out at him.  
  
"Please sir. Please believe me." She implored once again.  
  
Perhaps it was the pleading look in her eyes or the fact that her hands had now begun to shake with urgency, but Dumbledore was now surveying her with a look of unmistakable trust.  
  
"You must waste no more time. Quickly take the floo powder and go to the ministry of magic. When you get there find the door that leads to the department of mysteries. No doubt you will know which one it is. I will follow as soon as I get a few more answers."  
  
Janie ran towards the fire place hurriedly grabbing a hand full of floopowder from the bag.  
  
"Ministry of Magic" She said struggling to keep her voice steady.  
  
Janie was soon caught in an emerald green blaze. Her head was light, and feet flying faster than they ever had before. This was surely a sensation that could not accurately be described by any book. 


	11. Under the Cloak

Chapter 11: Under the Cloak  
  
Janie felt herself come to a stop. She had landed ashen faced into one of the fireplaces at the entrance of the ministry. She recognized the courtyard immediately from what she had read in the fifth book.  
  
The oval ceiling which covered the wide hall way seemed black and cold above her as Janie ran past the statue, (which was as yet, completely intact), and the wand checking station near the front doors. Dumbledore wasn't there yet. She still had time she thought as she ran into the hallway she was sure led to the department of mysteries.  
  
She ran past several doors before she found the right one. She knew it at once having seen it so often in her dreams. Janie flung the door open. She was standing in the dimly lit circular room in the department of mysteries. Most of the doors already had large red X's marked on the outsides from Hermione's spell. It was almost too easy to tell which door the battle was taking place in. She could hear various shouts echoing from the door on her right. She ran to it and hastily threw it open to find the scene she had always pictured.  
  
Nothing in her five months living this tale had felt more like walking into the scene of a novel as the place where she now found herself. More than a dozen curses were flying in every direction as she heard Remus's call  
  
"Harry round up the other's and GO!"  
  
Janie knew what would happen next. The prophecy would be smashed and nearly lost forever. She could see Harry standing over Neville whose legs were violently thrashing with effort to stand up. She had a fleeting thought to run over to them and save the prophecy. As she began to sprint however, She felt someone tug at her hand from behind.  
  
"Well, what have we here?" a harsh voice whispered suddenly in her ear. A masked death eater was now twisting her arms painfully behind her back  
  
"Let go of me." She said struggling through clenched teeth.  
  
The death eater laughed maliciously.  
  
"Oh 'fraid I can't do that luv." He whispered still smirking. "See, where I come from there's only one thing we do with people who go 'round meddling in our business." As he said this he reached for his wand freeing one of Janie's hands which she used to give him a swift punch in the face before kicking him in the ribs with her right leg causing him to fall to the ground. She began to continue her search for the veil when she heard a grunt from behind her. "You'll pay for that one missy!" Janie turned, the death eater was now back on his feet wand raised and prepared to strike. He began to open his mouth when: "Impedimenta!" The death eater fell limply to the ground once again pulling down her loosly fastened coat as he fell.. Janie turned back around to find Remus Lupin beginning to lower his wand.  
  
"Ebony? What on earth are you doing here?" He asked fervently.  
  
"No time to explain now. Where's Sirius?" She asked her eyes still roaming around the room to find the veil as she picked her cloak back up and threw it over her shoulder. Remus however, grabbed her by the arms and tried to usher her to the door.  
  
"Don't worry, he's able to handle himself. Just get out of here now!" He added hastily as another jinx flew past them nearly missing Janie's left ear.  
  
"Remus please! Tell me where he is!" She wriggling to free herself from his firm hold on her shoulders. " Ebony you're completely unarmed. You can't just go off on your own in here it's far too dangerous." He yelled again. She struggled for a few minuets more when very suddenly She heard a voice cry out "DUBBLEDORE" Remus, having heard the voice as well had let go of her shoulders. She ran as fast as she could possibly go to the other end of the room. She saw it. The veil was flapping fervently on the back wall. And there, on top of the ramp like platform, were Sirius and Bellatrix. She looked back at the front of the room where death eaters were scurrying away from the door where Dumbledore had appeared. She knew she had very little time now. Without hesitation she yelled out to him.  
  
"Sirius!" She began to climb up to him as he turned from ducking the first of Bellatrix's curses. He looked at her for a second then began to smile.  
  
"I should have known. Couldn't stay away could you?" He called to her laughing as he attempted and failed to hit Bellatrix with a stunning spell. Janie reached the platform. She watched Bellatrix raise her wand. This was it she was certain. Sirius had a look of laughter on his face which she had pictured him wearing when she had read about his demise. There was only one thing she could think of to save him. She ran twords him as she saw Bellatrix raise her wand slowly.  
  
Janie threw her arms around his neck her back facing what she knew would be her doom.  
  
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked her. Janie barely had time to whisper, "Trust me," in response before she felt it.  
  
It was amazing how quickly such a powerful spell could take effect. She felt only a small sharp pain as she fell to the floor. Her cloak had slipped off her shoulder. She sensed some one, probably Sirius place it back over her. Janie gave a light smile, before she closed her eyes. Her breath was growing shallow. It would stop altogether soon. But that didn't matter anymore. Everything was all right now. She had done what she had come to do. She had saved him. 


	12. The Place Between

Chapter 12: The place between  
  
Black. It seemed as though this singular colour had invaded the earth making it cold and dark. It was so dark in fact, that as Janie opened her eyes expecting to see a burst of light, she was surprised to find that it was as if she had never opened them at all. If this was what the other side of death looked like, it was nothing like what she was expecting it to be.  
  
She was certain she was dead. She had felt it happen. Her breath had stopped her muscles had relaxed. Yet now, Janie felt as she had always felt in life, she was breathing. She could feel her chest heave up and down with the beat of her heart. She was even vaguely aware of her pulse beating steadily in her wrist. Where was she? She could not be in what some people had called heaven. This was far too cold. Nor could she imagine that she was in hell for this was certainly no type of after life she had ever heard of.  
  
Janie lay flat on her back for what seemed like hours. Listening but expecting to hear nothing but the sound of her own breath. It wasn't long though before she realized that her breath was not the only thing she heard. Echoing, very softly from somewhere in the large black space, she heard the sound of voices. There seemed to be only a few, whispering at first. Then however, the voices grew. They were not speaking, not as normal humans would be expected to speak. It was almost as if they were chanting or perhaps singing.  
  
As the voices grew louder Janie could hear what they were saying:  
  
Sympathies exist  
  
Presentiments and signs That baffle our mortal comprehension To dream or to feel or to see or to hear What seems not to be there? But such things exist Things beyond this earth Things beyond our sacred thoughts of heaven These are the things that reason defies But reason sometimes lies  
  
They sang these words over and over again growing louder and more numerous each time. Janie sat herself up but did not dare go as far as to stand. She had a strange urge to join the voices in song, or to cry out to them as if they were long lost friends. But she kept silent. Eventually the number of voices began to decrease leaving Janie once again alone in this unfamiliar state of being. But was she alone? Even as the last voice faded from earshot she could feel the presence of someone or something in this dark space with her.  
  
Slowly she turned her head to look behind her. She saw nothing but black, but the feeling was still there. She began to pick herself up from what felt like a floor. Janie found that as soon as she did so a small flicker of light grew opposite her illuminating a small television like screen which showed the familiar sight of her dressing room table at West End. She stared at it for a few moments and then hesitantly began to walk forward.  
  
"Jane" Janie whipped around. Some one had called her name. It was soft but she was sure that she had heard it. They had called her Jane. Almost no one called Jane, and there was something very familiar about that voice  
  
She waited for several more moments. The voice did not come again. She walked steadily back in the direction of the television screen.  
  
"Jane" She stopped once again. The voice was louder this time, more pronounced. There was something in it that she was certain she had heard before. However, there was only one person she knew who called her Jane and there was no possible way that they could be here.  
  
"Jane!" The word was yelled in a full and powerful voice this time. She had no doubt anymore. she knew who the voice belonged to. But how could it be possible?  
  
"Otto?" She asked in a slightly tentative voice. After she said this another small light appeared directly opposite the small television screen. Instead of shedding light on a small picture however, this blaze illuminated the wrinkled, plump face and figure of the aged Greek stagehand.  
  
"Hello Jane" Otto said in reply. His face, which usually bore a rosy completion now looked pale and overtly worn.  
  
"What's going on?" She asked her voice still shaking.  
  
Otto took two steps closer to her. The light seemed to move with him, almost like a spot light.  
  
"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this." He said shaking his head slightly. "But you do have the right to know. No matter what she says you have the right to know."  
  
Otto said all this almost to himself so that Janie had to strain to hear it.  
  
"Otto what is going on? Where are we?" She asked more forcefully.  
  
Otto surveyed her with an almost pitying look in his eyes. Janie couldn't stand it when people pitied her. She stared him down with a dangerous glance. "Tell me." She said stubbornly folding her arms across her chest  
  
"You are in what is called the place between." Janie looked at him skeptically. The place between what? Was this some kind of after life? But how could it be if she still saw her dressing room clearly displayed before her.  
  
"What is the place between?" She asked. Otto continued to stare at her for several moments as if forming an explanation in his mind.  
  
"This is the place a fictional character enters after death. You see, when creations of the imagination are killed, either in the novels they inhabit, or simply in the minds of their own creators when the authors abandon their ideas, these characters are ushered into what you might call the real world."  
  
Janie still didn't understand. How could it be possible for fictional characters to become "real humans". Still, hadn't Sirius been real? Otto must have sensed her confusion.  
  
"Allow me to explain. Every time a child is born a fictional character somewhere, either on paper or in someone's mind has died. Do you understand?"  
  
"Are you saying that everyone on earth was once a character in a novel?" Janie asked. She was no longer hesitant. At last she was going to get the truth. About Sirius, about everything.  
  
"No. Unfortunately there are too few authors and far too may humans. There are, very few now who are born with the soul of a character. One of my aunt's largest mistakes" He added the last part as if speaking to himself once again. Janie continued to question.  
  
"Then do I have the soul of a character?" She couldn't help asking even though she knew this was completely irrelevant to what she truly needed to know. Otto looked at her and slowly began to shake his head.  
  
"I wouldn't have been able to send you into the fictional world if you had once been part of it." He took a few steps closer to her.  
  
"But. how did I get there in the first place?" She had meant to ask "Why did you send me there?" but somehow she already knew what the answer was.  
  
"The answer to that I'm afraid, is quite complicated. The beginning in fact doesn't even involve you, but you still have the right to know." He began to mutter again to himself. Janie took two steps tword him and said in the harshest voice she could muster  
  
"Otto, tell me everything." The old man smiled at her and sighed. " Patients was never your strong suit was it? All right Jane, I will tell you. For the past several months you have known me as Otto. A Greek stage hand employed at a west end theater around the age of 65." He paused here lowered his head and began to pace the floor, the small light followed him.  
  
"In truth, I am a good deal older. I was born in the year 146 B.C soon before the fall of the Greek Empire." Janie stared at him not daring to believe what she was hearing. Then again, she had long since given up all concept of what she knew to be reality. Anything was possible. Otto continued. "My mother was, is I should say, Melpomene the ordained Muse of tragedy. It was her duty to give the world contrast between the happy endings of my aunt Calliope's novels. Whenever a character dies in these, it is usually my mother's doing. She told me that one-day I would follow in her footsteps. Hers was never a path I wished to undertake. While I was born to tragedy I've never felt a need for it. From the day I saw my father, a mortal, die, I went to all lengths to avoid mention of death at all. Calliope, my aunt, the muse of epic poetry, what is now known as literature, has always shared my particular dis-like of tragedy. She has had to learn to live with my mother's interference with her novels as tragedy brings the necessary balance of drama to a story. Not that she didn't dis agree with mother's decisions to add what she saw as "un necessary death" to her fictional works. The Harry Potter series was the center of one of these dis agreements."  
  
Janie's eyes widened. Now she would know the entire truth. She would finally have the answers to every question that had been burning inside her for the past five months. She felt her heart quicken with anticipation as Otto talked on.  
  
"Calliope never wanted Sirius to die. Mother felt it necessary to the plot of the . My aunt did everything she could to dissuade her but nothing could stop Mother from interfering. She had made her final decision. There was only one thing left Calliope could think of to do. You see, the decision of a muse may only be changed by bringing another character into the story. This character must be from the mortal world, and must already have access to the fictional world which to be changed takes place in. This mortal may be sent between the worlds through an ancient cloak. Called the cloak of Erota, another of my kindred."  
  
Janie's heart was now beating so wildly that she was sure it was audible even in the silence that surrounded her. Why hadn't she thought of the cloak before?  
  
"She decided that she had to find some one. A person who knew the story of the fifth book well enough to be able to remember when the death was supposed to take place. This would have to be someone who cared enough about the character of Sirius Black to be willing to risk their own life to stop his death. There was one hitch however. She could not materialize in the mortal world and would not be able to travel the world looking for some one. My aunt discussed the entire situation with me. Since I am half mortal, I am able to enter the mortal world in any human form I wish. I volunteered to find her a suitable person."  
  
This was the part she knew would come. She had dreaded it. "Me?" Se asked softly Otto nodded his head slowly Janie knew from the time she regained her memory that she had been sent there to save Sirius's life. She had done that, but she could not explain why she felt so cold. She did not care about her own death, but this feeling was as if she had failed some how.  
  
"I visited many nations, lived among many social groups, and took many different forms. I found no one who would be able to counter my mother's decision. As the books publish date drew nearer, I began to grow desperate. When I came to London however, I knew my search was over. The first day I saw you, you were reading a Harry Potter novel. I quickly learned that Sirius Black was your favorite character in the books. Also, you your self were perfect. You had no family ties and would not be particularly missed if you were somehow lost in the fictional world. You were sensible enough to find a way of keeping Sirius out of danger. By all accounts you were perfect but."  
  
Janie's heart began to drop. "But what?" She asked franticly. "I DID save him didn't I? I did exactly what you had sent me there to do!" Otto frowned and looked at her with his annoyingly piteous stare.  
  
"Not exactly. I had forgotten two important elements of the plan when I sent you to the fictional world. The first was that by tradition, all mortal memory of the story would be lost once you were placed under the cloak. I thought you would remember the story, have time to plan a way for Sirius to be far away from the department of mysteries before."  
  
Otto's voice broke off. Janie was lost in a haze of confusion. Did this mean that she some how hadn't accomplished what she was supposed to, did this mean that Sirius was. no it couldn't be. He was alive. He had to be.  
  
"The second was that, by greek law, no mortal is ever to enter into the place between. When you came here, all that you had done was reversed. My mother had absolute power over the story once again. And she found a way of achieving her ends." Otto looked to the floor in an un-mistakeable expression of greif.  
  
"No!" Janie said backing away from him. "No, I saved him! I was there! He didn't have to die! The curse that was meant for him killed me instead, I- I know it did!" Her mind was turning in the most peculiar circles she could possibly imagine. All she could think of was he wasn't dead, how could he be dead? She had died in place of him. Otto was lying he had to be.  
  
"Sirius, being the character he was, attempted to avenge your death by murdering Bellatrix. My mother found a way to rebound the curse on him. He fell behind the veil."  
  
The familiar sensation of ice water was pouring through her veins. She wouldn't believe it. After all, how could it be true. But there was something inside her that knew Otto had no reason to lie. She now knew why she felt as though she had failed. Still, perhaps there was an explanation, perhaps Otto was mistaken. Frantic to find a plausible way to discredit him she asked:  
  
"What about the spell, the ancient shield. When Harry's mother gave her life for him, she left a protection around him so that it was impossible for him to be killed. Shouldn't the same thing have happened with me and Sirius? Why didn't he have the sheild around him protecting him?" Yes this made sense. He couldn't possibly be dead. Otto was mistaken. But Janie was shocked to find that Otto was looking at her wearing a patronizing smile.  
  
"I thought you would have worked out by now that the magical laws, for better or for worse, do not apply to you. How did you think I got you to Grimmuald place without the proper information from Dumbledore? How do you think you were able to use Remus Lupin's wand with such powerful results? The rules did not apply to you Jane."  
  
As Otto said this Janie had felt her legs give way as she fell to the floor. She was drained of all hope. There was no way to explain it away any more. "Then why did the spell kill me?" Janie asked from her place on the floor like ground, her voice growing softer with realization  
  
"Death is the only element familiar to all creatures. No one can escape it. Weather you die in the fictional world, or the mortal world. All will die. The situation in which you die is not subject to revision as ancient spells and seceret messages of the fictional world are."  
  
"So you're saying that I was sent there for nothing? Nothing changed at all?" Janie's voice was shaking. Half with anger at the man who stood before her and half in an effort to keep herself from weeping.  
  
"There are things, visions, which are better left un disturbed. Things which fate alone must decide. I was foolish to believe that I, a half mortal, could interfere with the musings of two worlds. But it is not too late, to restore two lives, if not in this world, in the next." He said the last portion of this speech almost to himself. Janie didn't listen. There was a deep rage burning inside her that she had never felt before. Half of this rage was directed to the man in front of her, part of it was directed to the fact that there was nothing material in the black space which she could pick up and throw, but most of her rage was directed upon herself. She wished she had never met Otto, she wished she had never read the Harry Potter series, she wished she had never run away from home, she wished that she had never lived, never been born at all.  
  
There was silence for a few moments. Janie was looking determinedly away from Otto and biting her lip so hard that she could feel blood beginning to trickle down her chin. Then suddenly Otto moved directly in front of her so that she could not avert his eyes any longer.  
  
He picked her up from the floor and moved her directly in front of the television screen, which held the frozen portrait of her dressing room.  
  
"It's time. You will understand latter." He told her. Before Janie could ask what he meant by this he had pushed her into the television screen which had begun to grow. She was falling very steadily until she landed in her chair, next to her table, in her room.  
  
Her eyes were closed and she could feel the tattered old cloak on top of her. She opened her eyes. The florescent lights which decorated her room blinded her as she drowsily began to sit up.  
  
"five minuets!" She heard the call ring out downstairs.  
  
Perhaps it had all been a dream. Maybe none of it had ever happened at all. There was only one way to be certain. Janie reached into the pocket of the tattered cloak which had been covering her. She felt around inside for what felt like hours before she found it.  
  
The piece of parchment, which had housed Sirius's letter, lay limply in her hand. It had not been a dream. Janie unfolded it expecting to find the entire note. But most of the message had faded somehow from view. All that remained were the last three words of the note. These were now larger than they had been and had transformed in color from plain black to blood red  
  
I love you  
  
Janie read these words over and over again in her head, completely ignoring the three minuet warning call. Then very suddenly, forgetting that she was meant to be strong, forgetting that all emotions were to be kept inside, forgetting the wall surrounding her feelings that she had promised to keep well guarded, forgetting that she had never done anything like this before, Janie Elseman Buried her face in her hands and cried. 


	13. Beyond the Veil

Chapter 13: Beyond the Veil  
  
"EBONY!" Sirius's shout echoed through the cavernous room. Harry turned quickly, completely confounded. He turned to the archway just in time to see a jet of red light streak across it and hit a large mass of curled black hair.  
  
Harry stood helplessly as Ebony lurched forward slightly and then fell backward onto the floor of the cold wooden arch. Her cloak fell behind her catching on the rood so that it was nearly indistinguishable from the veil that was now waving furiously.  
  
The room seemed to have gone silent. Even Bellatrix had lowered her wand in apparent shock. Sirius in contrast appeared frantic. He dropped quickly to his knees beside Ebony's limp body.  
  
"Ebony. Ebony please, answers me!" She didn't move. He scurried quickly over to the veil where her cloak had fallen. He grabbed it and rushed back over to her, covering her body in the tattered cloak as if it might contain some power to restore her.  
  
Harry's mind was swimming. He had thought Ebony was a spy. He had seen her in his dream, she had told Voldemort where Sirius was hiding. Even the order had not been entirely certain about her. But if it had all been a dream, if Voldemort wasn't there, if she hadn't told him where Sirius was, then why had she been in the department of mysteries in the first place?  
  
She had been standing on the arch when she fell. In the exact spot where only seconds before, Sirius and Bellatrix had been dueling. Ebony had been completely unarmed; she had no reason to step between them. Unless.  
  
Harry felt a sudden flood of realization. Sirius had been in the line of Bellatix's wand before Ebony had stepped between them. Sirius was the reason Ebony was lying, still on the archway. The red flash of light, the sweeping of the mysterious black veil had all been meant for him.  
  
The flood of realization was soon replaced by a feeling of immense guilt. He had thought she was a spy. He had thought that she was out to betray Sirius. Now, as Harry watched his godfather gather her in his arms and gently stroke her long hair, he realized that nothing could have been farther from the truth.  
  
Harry edged as close to the arch as he dared to go and looked up at Sirius. His face seemed to have stilled from it's frantic state. His eyes had very suddenly become blank, cold, void of all hope. As Harry starred closer he saw the very faint form of two tears sliding down Sirius's sunken cheek. It was the first time he had ever seen his godfather cry.  
  
Bellatrix meanwhile seemed to have recovered from the shock of failing to hit her intended target. She was now edging closer to Sirius, wand out. As she reached near enough to see his face, she let out a cold, shrill laugh.  
  
"Well, well." She said with a sneer. " I never thought I would live to see the day when my dear cousin would cry like a child." Sirius lowered Ebony's head back down to the floor of the arch before leaping to his feet. His eyes, which had appeared empty only moments before were now filled with a passionate hatred that Harry had never before seen.  
  
"Shall we continue?" Bellatrix asked, a smirk still lighting her dark face. Sirius wasted no time.  
  
"Impediment-" the words were barely out of his mouth when  
  
"Crucio!" Sirius fell to the floor writhing in pain. Harry began to run up the ramp to the arch his wand raised when he felt a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Harry, there's nothing you can do. Let Sirius handle it." Lupin was struggling to hold Harry away from the stairs as Bellatrix lowered her wand and Sirius's screams ceased. He now lay on the floor whimpering from the aftershock of pain. Bellatrix's smirk broadened.  
  
" Frankly I expected more of a fight from you Black." She said pacing around him. "You did love her didn't you? Enough to die for her, as she did for you? Stupid girl." She began to laugh again. Sirius had jumped to his feet again his wand pointed directly at Bellatrix's heart.  
  
"Avada kedavra!" Sirius and Bellatrix both shouted together.  
  
The two jets of green light met in mid air. They seemed to battle each other, each side gained momentum for a few seconds until it was shielded by the other. Behind them Harry could hear Dumbledore's battle with the other death eaters continuing. He didn't turn to watch. His eyes were fixed on the battle ensuing on the dais.  
  
After several painful moments, Bellatrix's strand moved closer to Sirius as the jet of green light emanating from Sirius's wand was pushed further and further back.  
  
Bellatrix's curse was quickly gaining momentum as Sirius's jet was fast fading from view. Before Sirius could do anything to block it, Bellatrix's curse had hit him squarely in the chest.  
  
"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. Lupin had dropped his hold of Harry's shoulder but quickly grabbed it again as Harry tried once again to run up the ramp. Sirius's eyes had widened in shock .  
  
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank back through the ragged veil hanging from the arch. 


	14. The Gilded frame

Chapter 14: The gilded frame  
  
Sirius felt a cold floor beneath him as his senses returned. He hesitantly opened his eyes. Once he did however, it looked as if they were still closed. The space around him was pitch black, allowing no room for even the smallest speck of light.  
  
He lay paralyzed on the ground, as he went over what had happened. He was dead. That was certain. He had felt himself fall behind the veil. Harry was trying to climb up the ramp. Remus had held him back. Sirius and Bellatrix had both attempted to use avada kedavra. She had succeeded. Ebony was dead too. He had seen her fall to the wooden ramp at his feet. Before she was hit with the curse she had told him to trust her. It was as if she knew.  
  
But if all this was true if he was dead, where was he? After all where did someone go once they were dead? This was a question Sirius had never truly thought to ask himself. He had toyed with the thought of an after life, but he had never come to a finite conclusion on the subject. What's more what would happen to the others now that he was dead? What would happen to Harry, to Remus to the order with out him? Was there any way of knowing now?  
  
Sirius looked hesitantly around him. He seemed to be alone in the black room, (if it could be called that). Yet suddenly the realization hit him. If this was the strange abstract space that every one entered upon death then, Ebony would be here too. Perhaps they were all here, Ebony, James, Lilly every one he had ever lost in life would meet him again, here.  
  
With this renewed hope. He forced himself to jump to his feet. As he did so soft voices began to echo in the space. It was as if they were calling out to some one. These voices did not speak as normal humans instead they chanted or perhaps sung.  
  
Maybe that was them, James, Lilly, Ebony. Perhaps it was he, Sirius they were calling to. In jubilation Sirius ran through the room.  
  
"Ebony?" His voice echoed through the space. Voices around him grew louder, the tempo they were singing grew quicker but no one voice answered him. He tried again.  
  
"James? Prongs, It's me!" The voices continued ignoring his cries. They became so loud that his ears began to ring with the sound. No sooner had they reached their peak however than they began to fade.  
  
Sirius had a desire to tear after them, but somehow his feet seemed rooted to one spot. And so, he listened, still and silent, until the last voice had disappeared from ear shot. He was alone again. Yet, he could not escape the feeling that, some how, he was not alone.  
  
He was not a stranger to the suspicion that he was being watched. He had felt it on the run, and in Hogsmead with Ebony. Now, there was no doubt in his mind that someone was standing directly behind him, watching his every move. He turned quickly. He saw nothing but black. Still, he could not shake the peculiar feeling.  
  
Then, a small light directly opposite him began to shine, illuminating as small picture frame, which hung in the air as if it were depending on the wall of a room for support. The gold frame held no image inside it as one might expect a golden portrait frame to do. Instead its middle was as pitch black as the space that surrounded it.  
  
Sirius edged hesitantly towards the frame. He had almost reached it when  
  
"Sirius Black" Sirius whipped back around to find the source of this voice. He did not have to search long before another small light was appeared in the space opposite him. This light illuminated a short elderly man with balding gray hair a round stomach and small brown eyes.  
  
"We meet at last." The man said eyeing Sirius with a slight smile.  
  
"Who are you?" Sirius asked slightly taken back by the old man's sudden presence. The man's smile widened. He seemed unseasonably cheerful. His wrinkled, plump face was full with a good-natured expression. His voice had a hint of foreign sound.  
  
" Just like Janie." The old man said shaking his head with a slight laugh " Always curious to discover the world around them with out entering their own souls." He muttered to himself looking down at the floor and pacing the black ground. He then looked up at Sirius. "I believe we both know the question of 'who are you?' to be completely irrelevant. You would be much better served in asking 'where are the people I am searching for?' or perhaps even 'where am I?' these would have brought you closer to the knowledge of your ultimate self. Since you have chosen to ask however, I will tell you. I am the escort into the next dimension of individuality. All life will begin and end with me, my identity is of no importance to the placement of your next destination."  
  
"If this isn't my 'next destination' then where am I?" Sirius asked slightly annoyed with the old man lengthy response to such a simple question.  
  
"Ah, finally becoming more reasonable." Said the old man cheerily  
  
"You are in, what is known as the place between." He said this definitely. As if such an answer closed the question to any further discussion.  
  
"What exactly is the Place Between?" Sirius asked, his tone growing more curious rather than impatient. He was soon incensed however to find that the old man was, once again, shaking his head.  
  
"A shame. We were making so much progress." He muttered to himself. He once again turned back to Sirius "I would not tell you the answer to that even if it were vital to your knowledge. I know you will not believe the truth. It is always convenient to believe in your own reality, after all. I thought that certainly your next question would deal with where those you were searching for are currently residing."  
  
This was indeed the foremost question in Sirius's mind. And while he was frustrated at the fact that he still had only a very primitive idea of where he was, he was almost glad for an excuse to ask.  
  
"Where are they?" The old man starred at him and smiled a weary smile. "They are in a dimension different from the one you have always known. Your friend James and his wife Lilly are both living out separate lives in blissful ignorance of their fate. They have no more memory of their history in your world, they have no grief over their tragic end."  
  
"And what about Ebony?" Sirius asked quickly, surprising even himself.  
  
The old man starred at him for a few moments before his face suddenly burst into a triumphant smile. It looked as if he had been waiting for Sirius to ask this specific question.  
  
"I can not tell you with out breaking the seal of an ancient law. I can, however, show you." The old man moved to Sirius and pointed him in the direction of the golden picture frame on the opposite wall.  
  
The middle, which had been blank before now lightened to display a brightly- lit room that include a couch, a mirror a drawing table and chair. It was the chair to which Sirius's attention was immediately drawn. For there, with her face buried in her hands sat Ebony.  
  
Sirius edged slowly toward the frame as he watched her lift her head to the mirror that stood opposite the chair. Her pale face was tear stained and smudged with heavy amounts of black makeup. She took up a handkerchief attempting to repair the damage, but even as she did, two more tears fell limply down her thin cheek.  
  
Sirius Moved closer to the frame. He felt that some how, even though the screen showed only a picture she was real. That he would be able to comfort her. But even as he put his hand to the picture in the frame the old man tugged it away.  
  
"If you touch the portrait you will fade into her world." He said grimly.  
  
"And what's wrong with that?" Sirius said sharply tearing his eyes away from the picture to look at the old man.  
  
"Why shouldn't I go there? She needs me!" Sirius turned back to the portrait, and watched as Ebony pulled herself out of the chair, her face still slightly tear stained. She put the handkerchief back in her trunk and picked up a small piece of parchment. As he looked closer, Sirius recognized the parchment to be the same that he had left on her bedroom table just before he had left for the ministry. The note he had left her before the department of mysteries was gone. He could see that only the last three words remained. Ebony retraced these several times with her finger before she set the parchment down and hurriedly left the room.  
  
Sirius's eyes lingered where she had disappeared for what seemed like hours.  
  
"I believe we both know that it is you who truly needs her." The old man said quietly. Sirius turned to him, and was surprised to see that he was smiling. Sirius turned back to the portrait once more. He knew the old man was right. He needed her. Though he didn't dare admit it out loud. His pride still remained instinctively intact.  
  
"We need each other." He told the man impatiently. "Just, please let me go there! Please let me see her." The old man's smile broadened as he said: "That I can do." And in less than a second, he produced the cloak that Sirius recognized as Ebony's.  
  
"This is what is known as the cloak of Erota. It will take you into the next world in an adult form. This is unusual in most cases."  
  
"What do you mean in most cases?" Sirius asked. The old man sighed heavily but proceeded to answer.  
  
"Normally after a character such as yourself has entered the place between, they are set to start life over again in a different world. They start as a new born child coming from a mother's womb. I interfered with this process when I sent Janie, the woman you know as Ebony, into your world by means of the cloak. I sent her their in a vain hope of saving you. As you well know that plan failed. But it is still not too late." The old man muttered the last part to himself. Sirius made to grab the cloak, but the man pulled it away from his grasp.  
  
"Two things must be done, I'm afraid, before this process can be put into effect. First I must warn you, when you enter her life. go into the next dimension, only Janie will see you for who you truly are. The rest will see only the body of the man whom you will over take. Do you understand?" Sirius nodded his head eager to be with Ebony or Janie (her name didn't matter.)  
  
"The second thing that must be done. I must ask you a question to which you and I both know the answer. However, in order for the cloak to properly take effect, the answer must be confirmed aloud. Do you love her?"  
  
"Yes." Sirius answered definitely staring anxiously at the cloak in the old man's hands.  
  
"Then it is time." The man said. He placed the cloak tightly around Sirius's shoulders before directing him to the golden picture frame. A portrait of a costumed young man with parted brown hair now replaced the picture of a theater dressing room.  
  
"It is time." The old man said as he pushed Sirius towards the picture which had steadily begun to grow. 


	15. A Little Fall of Rain

Chapter 15: A Little fall of Rain  
  
Janie turned and walked off stage, as if in a trance only vaguely aware of the applause that followed her into the wing. She wanted more than anything to dash back upstairs to her dressing room, away from the shoving crowd and the thousands of eyes that she was sure were watching her. But she only had four or five minuets before she had to walk back onto the stage. Not nearly enough time to retreat upstairs.  
  
She continued walking straight ahead, not really aware of where she was going. A few people spoke to her as she walked past. Congratulating her. She simply walked on, deaf to their voices. It was only when Arron hurried by telling her that she should get sick more often that she realized she was directly outside of the shop room. This was the room where they had brought her just after the first act. Before it all happened.  
  
She walked in the door and sat down on a wooden stool just in front of a large cardboard square. She could not cry any more, every tear that had been capable of shedding seemed to have dried up in the florescent lights of the dressing room. All she could do now was sit and think. This was, if possible worse than crying. At least when she was focused on her tears she had a diversion from the memory of Sirius's face just before she had fallen. The laughter had not quite faded from it. It was only as she began to fall that a slight note of panic had set in behind his large dark eyes.  
  
Nothing had changed. Why had Otto sent her through the novel if he had known that this could happen? This was his fault. The fact that Sirius was still dead, the fact that she had died a fictional death for nothing. Every injustice and wrongdoing in the world seemed to circle it's self back to the old Greek man. She would never forgive him. If she lived the rest of her life in bitterness and misery, she would not; could not forgive him for what he had done.  
  
There were a few minuets in complete silence before Janie heard footsteps coming from the hall outside and entering the shop room. She did not turn to them, but remained in her seat staring straight ahead into nothing.  
  
"You're next scene's almost up." Marie had walked into the shop room. Janie knew she could not avoid her as she could the others. They had been best friends long before college, they knew everything about each other. Still it was worth an attempt. She turned and answered as casually as she could.  
  
"I'll be there in a minuet." Janie tried to smile, but she had a feeling that it came out as more of a grimace. Marie did not leave, but walked further into the room.  
  
"It's going well tonight. On My Own was the best you've ever done it." Janie turned away from her and nodded grimly.  
  
"What's wrong?" Marie asked. Janie noticed that out of nowhere another solitary tear had swelled in her eye and run down her cheek. She wiped it away furious with herself. She had thought that she was done with crying.  
  
"Nothing. I-I'm still not feeling that well." She tried to say this nonchalantly but she was sure that her stuttering had given her away. Indeed, when she looked at Marie she had her arms folded and her face was filled with a patronizing glare.  
  
"Have you been reading about that Sirius bloke again?" She asked sharply. Without realizing what she was doing, Janie slowly nodded. Marie sighed and rolled her eyes.  
  
"I don't understand why you even read that book. All it does is make you obsessively depressed for days on end." Janie stayed silent. Usually she would have defended her beloved Harry Potter from Marie's chorus of unprecedented attacks. Now, however, her head seemed to be completely void of articulate thought.  
  
"That's your music." Marie told her. Without hesitating, Janie got up from the stool and walked to the back of the set prepared for her entrance. She climbed over the wall as rehearsed. It was routine now. She limped slowly onto the stage pretending to be hurt. It was all an act. She began to sing. The words meant nothing.  
  
The song was about to start. This had been her favorite song in the whole show before everything had happened. She didn't know how it would change, if it could change now.  
  
"Don't you fret Messer. Sir- Marius I don't feel any pain-"  
  
She had almost said his name. In normal times she would have prayed that no one else had noticed. But now she prayed that she had screamed this mistake for all to hear. That somehow he would be able to hear her calling for him. That was impossible she knew.  
  
"-A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now-" She remembered vividly that she had only felt a very brief pang before she had fallen on the ramp. Not nearly as much as she was experiencing now.  
  
"-You're here that's all I need to know-" When she had been hit with the spell, she had been happy. Happy because he would live. If only she had known then.  
  
"-And you will keep me safe-" Still, she remembered vaguely that Otto had said something in the place between. Something about restoring two lives.  
  
"-And you will keep me close-"  
  
.If not in this world in the next. Did this mean that she would see Sirius again? Perhaps soon.  
  
"-And rain will make the flowers grow." She turned to Arron who was holding her in his arms on the stage floor in the way that they had practiced. She looked suddenly into his face as if somehow expecting to see Sirius's face starring down at her. But instead she was met with the rehearsed face of an actor. Singing the words he had been taught:  
  
"But you will live 'ponine dear God above. If I could heal your wounds with words of love." Janie began to answer him, disappointment setting into the pit of her stomach. She didn't know exactly what she had expected. He was dead.  
  
"Just hold me now and let it be, shelter me comfort me." It was then, in that moment just before Arron answered her, that she saw it. Perhaps she was imagining it, but she was sure she saw something very familiar. no perfectly familiar in the face that was starring back at her. She was sure that those were not the eyes of an actor. Still she didn't dare believe it until she heard.  
  
"You would live a hundred years if I could show you how.I won't desert you now." She was not imagining. Janie knew that voice too well, as if it had been ingrained in her mind. That was Sirius's voice. Now, as she looked up at him there was no mistaking those sparkling black eyes. An amazingly free sensation filled her as she continued the song which suddenly had more meaning than everything that was real in that theater or maybe even the world. She looked into him not daring to pull her eyes away as she sang:  
  
"-The rain can't hurt me now, this rain will wash away what's past And you will keep me safe And you will keep me close I'll sleep in your embrace at last The rain that brings you here is heaven blessed The skies begin to clear and I'm at rest A breath away from where you are I've come home from so far."  
  
She sang these words that she had rehearsed as if she had never sung them before. She knew that they were true at once. She was home finally. With him beside her again she found herself in a home that she had never known before. They sang together now  
  
-So don't you fret Mssr. Marius I don't feel any pain A little fall of Rain Can hardly hurt me now -Hush a by dear Eponine you won't feel any pain A little fall of rain Can hardly hurt you now-"  
  
She couldn't help but simile as she sang these words. At once she knew that this is what Otto had meant by "You will understand." He had known this would happen. It was meant to be.  
  
"- I'm here-" "-That's all I need to know"  
  
The sincerity of this stayed inside her heart. He would never leave her again. Janie did not know how she knew this, but somehow it was true. Sirius pulled her closer to his chest. His face told her at once that he understood now too. The dream had ended: This was the morning.  
  
-And you will keep me safe, you will keep me close" -I will stay till you are sleeping" And rain- And rain Will make the flowers. Will make the flowers. Grow  
  
The End  
  
Muses note: The story you have read is true. Every part of it, from beginning to end happened exactly as documented here through the eyes of the three most effected by the challenge to a predestined decision. You can chose to believe it or not. It makes no difference. For it is irrelevant to the knowledge you need now to posess. Learn from an old mistake, do not fear death as a fool fears his shadow, and mourn for those lost to it no more than one may mourn for a lost book. For you will see the morning come and those lost to your world coming to you once more in the end. Until then, know your purpose and follow it fully. For, as a very wise friend of mine once said: It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. 


End file.
